A team of researchers from the University of Navarra has identified the main risk factors for anorexia nervosa, bulimia and other eating disorders. The result of work, led by Drs. Miguel Angel Martinez (director of the Epidemiology and Public Health Unit) and Salvador Cervera (director of department of Psychiatry of the University Clinic), has been published in the latest issue of the journal Pediatrics of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

According to this study, age, eating habits, consumption of certain media and parental marital status influence the onset of these disorders. The work was carried out in Navarra with a representative sample of 2,862 girls between 12 and 21 years of age.

The main risk factors identified were a younger age, the habit of eating alone (which multiplied the risk by three times); a higher use of certain media such as youth magazines focused on fashion, beauty, gossip, etc. content (which multiplied the risk by two times); and a different parental marital status than marriage (divorced/separated/widowed), which also doubles the risk of anorexia, bulimia or partial syndromes of these disorders.

 

Influence of the family and sociocultural environment.

According to Dr. Martínez, "these results represent one of the first methodologically rigorous approaches to date to determine the causes of anorexia and bulimia". The conclusions of the research, in his opinion, "strongly support the hypothesis that the genesis of these diseases is strongly conditioned by the family and sociocultural environment in which the lives of adolescent girls unfold". The professor stressed that "in addition to the importance of reviewing the contents of the media aimed at young girls and the need to foster a good relationship between parents, a clear conclusion is that the habit of eating alone should be avoided among adolescent girls".

The study is part of the design epidemiological cohort study, which involves a prospective follow-up of a group of people who are initially free of the disease being analyzed. "At the beginning, potential risk factors are collected and then the relationship of these factors with the risk of the appearance of disorders in the future is assessed," explained Dr. Martínez.

The young women at sample were first screened in 1997. After fill in an extensive battery of tests, those who might be most at risk for anorexia, bulimia or other eating disorders were interviewed by a team of psychiatrists from the University Clinic of the University of Navarra. "More than 95% of the young women who were initially free of these illnesses were reassessed, after 18 months of follow-up. Among them, 90 new cases of these disorders were diagnosed applying the current criteria of the American Psychiatry association (DSM-IV criteria)," he concluded.