Disordered Eating Attitudes and Their Correlates among Iranian High School Girls.docVIP

Health Promotion Perspectives, Vol. 1, No. 1, 2011; P: 41-49 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Open Access Disordered Eating Attitudes and Their Correlates among Iranian High School Girls 1 1 1 *Bahram Pourghassem Gargari , Deniz Kooshavar , Neda Seyed Sajadi , Safoura Karami , Mahdiyeh Hamed Behzad , Hassan Shahrokhi2 1 1 1. a)Department of Biochemistry and Nutrition, Faculty of Health and Nutrition, b) Nutritional Re- search Center, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran 2. Department of Psychology, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran (Received: 15 March 2011/ Accepted: 11 July 2011) ABSTRACT Background: Disordered eating attitudes are contributing factors to the development of eat- ing disorders. Adolescent girls are at high risk for eating diseases. In Iran, there is few data on the subject, especially in Azarian adolescent girls, so we did this study for assessing disor- dered eating attitudes and their correlates among Iranian Azarbaijani high school girls. Methods: In a cross-sectional study, 1887 high school girls were selected. Eating Attitude Test-26 (EAT-26) and socio economical questionnaires were used. The EAT-26 score of 20 or higher defined as disordered eating attitudes. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Pro- gram for Social Sciences, by using from descriptive and analytical statistics. Results: Reliability and validity of the translated EAT-26 were 0.80, 0.76, respectively. In studied subjects, mean (SD) of EAT-26 was 11.71(8.48). Totally, 16.7% (C.I with 95%: 15.1- 18.3%) of students had disordered eating attitudes. About half of the participants were un- happy with their body weight and considered themselves as obese. Mean of EAT-26 was higher in this group. Groups, who intent to weight loss, were smoker, and who had age of menarche less than 11 years, also had higher EAT-26 scores. Parent’s literacy or job, birth order, family size or inco