Screening for abnormal eating attitudes in a population of Egyptian secondary school girls

Recent research indicates that identification with the western ideal of slimness can be followed by heightened weight consciousness and development of eating disorders in cultures thought to be relatively immune from developing such disorders. In this study, which is based on an earlier one by the same author, a population of secondary school girls in Cairo, Egypt (n = 351) was screened for abnormal eating attitudes using a translated version of the Eating Attitude Test Questionnaire. Of the girls screened, 11.4% scored positively on the questionnaire and were subsequently interviewed. Three cases clearly fulfilled Russell's criteria for a diagnosis of the full syndrome of bulimia nervosa (1.2%). This is broadly in keeping with rates in studies in the United Kingdom. Twelve pupils (3.4%) showed sufficient concern over their weight to qualify for diagnosis as a partial syndrome of bulimia nervosa. The results confirmed the initial impression that disorders of eating are emerging in cultures that did not produce such morbidity in the past, with more or less the same prevalence as in the United Kingdom. The study concludes that no society is truly immune to the development of such disorders, because of the globalisation of culture by virtue of the media.