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.