Eating disorders among women in primary care (Monastir, Tunisia)

Eating disorders (ED) are relatively frequent, but convey a high mortality and morbidity. More than half of individuals with ED remain undetected in primary care. The general practitioners (GP) are in a strategic position to detect patients with ED.

To determine the prevalence of ED in Tunisian women visiting their GP using the SCOFF-F score and to determinate the associated socioeconomic, clinical, and lifestyle factors.

This is a cross-sectional study of women who consulted two primary health care in the city of Monastir, during 4 months of the year 2020. The SCOFF-F was performed.

We included 445 women; the mean age of our patients was 36 ± 12 years. SCOFF-F was positive in 48% of cases CI95% [43-52%], 14% presented with bulimia nervosa and 12% with binge eating disorder. Patients with ED were overweight in 33% of cases, 40% perform a physical activity and 53% eat three meals per day. A family history of ED was 35%. 20% of the patients have a history of psychiatric disorder. In multivariate analysis, performing physical activity to control weight, eating three meals a day, maintaining the current diet without trying to change into a different one, non continous occupation and anxiety increase the risk of ED with respective ORs of 2.34, 4.26, 3.69, 2.09 and 2.09 respectively. Ages between 35 and 60 years, and a history of ED in siblings increases the risk of ED by 1.6.

Our study concluded that ED was associated with common family behavior, especially among siblings, and with a particular psychological state which are interesting to screen by GP and to focus on targeting family care.