Prevalence of eating disorders in a Spanish community adolescent sample

To describe the prevalence of eating disorders (ED) among Spanish adolescents and to present the reliability of the Catalan version of the EDE-12.

A community sample of 1155 participants, and a risk sample of 93 participants, aged between 10.9 and 17.3 years old, from the city of Barcelona participated in the study. The study involved two stages: first, an initial screening with the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 (EDI-2), and second, a structured clinical interview (EDE-12). Three scales of the EDI-2 (Drive for thinness, Body dissatisfaction and Bulimia) were used to select the at risk sample; the Eating Disorders Examination-12 (EDE-12) was only administered to the at-risk sample.

A 1.28% of the total sample was detected as ED (2.31% of girls and 0.17% of boys). Reliability coefficients of EDE-12 ranged from medium to high.

Symptoms of anorexia and bulimia nervosa were higher among girls than boys. Preoccupation with maintained low weight, with body image and shape, and taking excessive exercise in order to loose weight, are increasing among Spanish adolescents. Prevalence rate of ED is lower than other studies with Spanish' adolescents sample, and could be related to the sample age (13.16% of the sample is smaller than 12 years old), and to the non response bias to the interview because the assessment was carried out in the school setting.