Body morphology in adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa: a short-term longitudinal study

Changes in body morphology of anorectic girls during illness as well as during the treatment period were studied using data on 23 anthropometric traits. The sample consisted of 20 adolescent girls, aged 16.05 +/- 2.21 years. Girls with shorter duration of anorexia nervosa have larger amounts of fat and muscle tissue on the upper arm, as well as thicker subcutaneous fat tissue of the trunk, than the girls with longer duration of illness. These differences remain even after the treatment period. Growth rate of girls with longer duration of illness has been decreased. Slight changes in the latent structure of body morphology in anorectic girls at the end of hospitalisation in comparison with those at the beginning of hospitalisation were observed. The above-mentioned changes could have resulted from greater relative increase of fat than muscular tissue mass during hospitalisation and possible difference in the sequence of fat gain between the trunk and the extremities. Further studies are needed.