Objective: To investigate the prevalence of eating disorders and its correlated factors in female students of universities, senior high schools and junior high schools.
Methods: A total of 1486 female students took part in the study. They were sampled by optimum distributing delaminating grouping method, representing the female students in 6 universities and 8 high schools in the 5 urban areas in Chengdu. Participants completed the Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI), Body Mass Index-based Silhouette Matching Test (BMI-SMT), Self-rating Depression Scale, Beck Anxiety Inventory and a self-administered questionnaire in the class time. We performed the t test and logistic regression to analysis the data.
Results: The estimated total prevalence of eating disorders in the female students was 3.32%. 17 years old (7.16%) was the easiest age to develop eating disorders while in senior high school (5.21%) showing the highest prevalence rate. There were differences between the eating disorders tendency group and none eating disorders tendency group in cognitive warp (P = 0.009) and expectation warp (P = 0.000) of BMI-SMT. The related factors of eating disorders were: concerning about the idol at media, non-harmonious parental relationships and being abused in childhood, body dissatisfaction factor of EDI, interoceptive awareness factor of EDI and anxiety.
Conclusion: The total prevalence of female students' eating disorders in Chengdu was high and more attention should be paid to them on their mental health.