Epidemiology of eating behaviour and weight distribution in 14- to 19-year-old Swiss students

A sample consisting of 1944 Swiss students of both sexes was investigated with regard to distribution over weight categories based on BMI age percentiles and eating behaviour (EAT-26) in relation to age, sex and socio-economic status (SES). In addition, the relationship between BMI and Eating Attitudes Test scores was analysed. More subjects than expected were found to be in the obese weight categories. No clear effect of age and sex on the distribution of the sample across the five BMI classes was observed. There was an inverse relationship between BMI and socio-economic status. On the EAT scale girls scored twice as high as boys. Age had no effect on the EAT scores in females, although it did in males. Socio-economic status and EAT scores were inversely associated. Three risk categories based on the EAT scores were described: EAT 0-9 = no risk (77.5% girls, 93.0% boys), EAT 10-19 = low risk (14.1% girls, 5.5% boys), and EAT > or = 20 = high risk (8.3% girls, 1.5% boys). With regard to both aspects, weight and eating behaviour, female students showed more disturbed eating behaviour and fewer instances of deviation from normal weight. In male subjects there were more deviations from normal weight than instances of disturbed eating behaviour.