Eating disorders 'contagious'

2008-04-19 21:41

New York - Eating disorders may be contagious, according to a study of high school students in the United States.

Researchers from the VA Iowa City Health Care System found that binging, fasting, diet pill use and other eating disorder symptoms clustered within counties, particularly among female students.

"These findings confirm the strong social influences on female adolescents in the US to be thin, sometimes using unhealthy behaviours to achieve this goal," said Dr Valerie L Forman-Hoffman and Cassie L Cunningham.

In a study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders they said research in the 1980s in female college students first suggested that disordered eating behaviour spread through "social contagion," demonstrating that binge eating clustered within sororities.

In the current study, they looked at whether a similar pattern would be seen among high school students at the county-wide level by analysing nationally representative data on 15 349 high school students.

Clustering Effect

There was a small but significant clustering effect, the researchers found.

A pair of students from the same county was 4% to 10% more likely to share an eating-disordered behaviour when compared to pairs in which each person came from a different county.

Severe food intake restriction, dieting, exercising and diet pill use all showed clustering by county, as did any weight control symptom overall or any eating disorder symptom.

But no clustering was seen for purging, possibly due to the "secretive," less socially acceptable nature of this behaviour, the researchers suggest.

Clustering patterns were the same in rural, suburban and urban counties.

While the study wasn't designed to look at why these behaviours might be clustering in certain counties, the researchers suggest that peer pressure, information sharing or students modelling their behaviour on one another are possible mechanisms.

Based on their results, the researchers think it may be more effective to target eating disorder prevention efforts to counties or schools where they are more common, rather than individual students.

- Reuters