[Disordered eating behaviors: prevalence among Mexican students aged 15-19]

To obtain the prevalence of disordered eating (DE) among student female adolescents from public high schools in 17 urban settings in the Mexican Republic, across age, setting and region.

The sample comprised 4358 female students 15 to 19 years of age. DE was evaluated with a validated and standardized questionnaire for Mexican adolescents with 2 cutoff points: moderate-DE and high-DE.

The total prevalence of moderate-DE was 14.2% and 6.8% for high-DE. Significant statistical differences were found only for high-DE across settings, were the Estado de Mexico reached the highest score (12.1%) and Aguascalientes the lowest (2.1%). The north region obtained the highest scores for both moderate (17.2%) and high-DE (9.7%), whereas the center-west region obtained the second place for moderate-DE (15.1%) and the center region for high-DE (11.5%). The center region showed the lowest scores for moderate-DE (11.5%) and the south-southeast region the lowest for high-DE (4.5%). The analysis across age showed a positive relationship for both moderate and high-DE.

The total prevalence of DE was 6.8%. Age, socioeconomic status and the place of residence seem to be variables that relate to disordered eating.