Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-246sw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-14T04:59:58.882Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Abnormal eating attitudes in London schoolgirls — a prospective epidemiological study: outcome at twelve month follow-up

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

G. C. Patton ,
E. Johnson-Sabine ,
K. Wood ,
A. H. Mann  and
A. Wakeling
G. C. Patton*
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, London
E. Johnson-Sabine
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, London
K. Wood
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, London
A. H. Mann
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, London
A. Wakeling
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr G. C. Patton, Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, Pond St., London NW3 2QG.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

The occurrence and course of eating disorder in a large representative population of 15-year-old London schoolgirls has been assessed using a two-stage survey methodology. Attempts to control weight were common and often transient. Dieting was in the great majority of girls found to be a benign practice without progression to more extreme concerns about food and weight. However, a small proportion of dieters did become cases and formed the majority of new cases found at follow-up. The relative risk of dieters becoming cases was eight times that of non-dieters. Many factors conventionally associated with eating disorder were associated more with attempting weight control than caseness. These included pre-morbid personality, pre-morbid obesity and family weight pathology. Other factors, including social class, career choice and psychosexual development, had no association either with attempting weight control or caseness.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , May 1990 , pp. 383 - 394
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Button, E. J. & Whitehouse, A. (1981). Subclinical anorexia nervosa. Psychological Medicine 11, 509–516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cattell, R. B., Eber, H. J. & Tatsnokos, M. (1970). The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire, 3rd edn.Institute for Personality and Ability Testing: Champaign, Ill.Google Scholar
Clarke, M. H. & Palmer, R. L. (1983). Eating and neurotic symptoms in university students. British Journal of Psychiatry 142, 299–304.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cooper, J. E. (1970). The Leyton obsessional inventory. Psychological Medicine 1, 48–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Crisp, A. H., Palmer, R. L. & Kalucy, R. S. (1976). How common is anorexia nervosa? A prevalence study. British Journal of Psychiatry 128, 549–554.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dwyer, J. T., Feldman, J. J. & Mayer, J. (1967). Adolescent dieters: who are they? American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 20, 1045–1056.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fries, H. (1974). Secondary amenorrhoea, self-induced weight reduction and anorexia nervosa. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica suppl. 248.Google ScholarPubMed
Garner, D. M. & Garfinkel, P. E. (1979). The Eating Attitudes Test: an index of the symptoms of anorexia nervosa. Psychological Medicine 9, 273–279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garner, D. M. & Garfinkel, P. E. (1982) Anorexia Nervosa: A Multidimensional Perspective. Brunner/Mazel: New York.Google Scholar
Garner, D. M., Olmstead, M. P., Bohr, Y. & Garfinkel, P. E. (1982). The Eating Attitudes Test: psychometric features and clinical correlates. Psychological Medicine 12, 871–878.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, D. P. & Hiller, V. F. (1979). A scaled version of the General Health Questionnaire. Psychological Medicine 9, 139–145.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goldberg, D. P. & Huxley, P. (1980). Mental Illness in the Community. Tavistock: London.Google Scholar
Greenfield, D., Quinlan, D. M., Harding, P., Glass, E. & Bliss, A. (1987). Eating behaviour in an adolescent population. International Journal of Eating Disorders 6, 99–111.3.0.CO;2-Q>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huenemann, R. L., Shapiro, L. R., Hampton, M. C. & Mitchell, B. W. (1966). A longitudinal study of gross body conformation and their association with food and activity in a teen-age population. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 18, 325–338.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jenkins, R., Mann, A. H. & Belsey, E. (1981). The background design and use of a short interview to assess social stress and support in research and clinical settings. Social Science and Medicine 153, 195–203.Google Scholar
Johnson-Sabine, E., Wood, K., Patton, G., Mann, A. & Wakeling, A. (1988). Abnormal eating attitudes in London schoolgirls – a prospective epidemiological study: factors associated with abnormal response on screening questionnaires. Psychological Medicine 18, 615–622.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kalucy, R. S., Crisp, A. H. & Harding, B. A. (1977). A study of 56 families with anorexia nervosa. British Journal of Medical Psychology 50, 381–395.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kelly, J. T., Patten, S. E. & Johannes, A. (1982). Analysis of selfreported eating and related behaviours in an adolescent population. Nutrition Research 2, 417–432.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
King, M. B. (1986). Eating disorders in general practice. British Medical Journal 293, 1412–1414.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leichner, P., Arnett, J., Rallo, J. S., Srikameswaren, S., & Vulcano, B., (1986). An epidemiologic of maladaptive eating attitudes in a Canadian school age population. International Journal of Eating Disorders 5, 969–982.3.0.CO;2-P>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mann, A. H., Wakeling, A., Wood, K., Monck, E., Dobbs, R. & Szmukler, G. (1983). Screening for abnormal eating attitudes and psychiatric morbidity in an unselected population of 15-year-old schoolgirls. Psychological Medicine 13, 573–580.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nylander, I. (1971). The feeling of being fat and dieting in a school population. Epidemiologic interview investigation. Acta Sociomedica Scandinavica 1, 17–26.Google Scholar
Russell, G. F. M. (1970). Anorexia nervosa: its identity as an illness and its treatment. In Modern Trends in Psychological Medicine, vol. 2, (ed. Harding-Price, J.), pp. 131–164. Butterworth: London.Google Scholar
Russell, G. F. M. (1979). Bulimia nervosa: an ominous variant of anorexia nervosa. Psychological Medicine 9, 429–448.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schleimer, K. (1984). Dieting in teenage girls. Acta Paediatrica Scandinavica suppl. 312.Google Scholar
Schmidke, A. & Häfner, H. (1988). The Werther Effect after television films: new evidence for an old hypothesis. Psychological Medicine 18, 665–676.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szmukler, G. I. (1985). Weight and food preoccupation in a population of English schoolgirls. In Understanding Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia (ed. Bargman, J. G.), pp. 21–27. Brunner'Mazel: New York.Google Scholar
Vandereyken, W. & Vanderlinden, J. (1983). Denial of illness and the use of self-reporting measures in anorexia. International Journal of Eating Disorders 2, 101–108.3.0.CO;2-U>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williams, P., Hand, D. & Tarnopolsky, A. (1982). The problem of screening for uncommon disorders a comment on the Eating Attitudes Test. Psychological Medicine 12, 431–434.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed