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Eating disorders in adolescence in a Swiss epidemiological study
H C Steinhausen1, C Winkler, M Meier
1Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
The International Journal of Eating Disorders
|September 1, 1997
Abstract
Objective:
This is a study of prevalence rates for anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) in an epidemiological sample of Swiss adolescents.
Method:
A two-stage approach was used which involved the screening of a large sample of adolescents aged 14-17 and subsequent interviews of screen-positive and control subjects.
Results:
The prevalence rates for adolescent girls were 0.7% for AN and 0.5% for BN.
Discussion:
Full clinical syndromes of AN and BN in adolescents are by far less frequent than individual symptoms of eating disorders. There is more cross-cultural variation for prevalence rates in BN than in AN.