BMC Women's Health: Eating Disorders
BMC Women's Health: Eating Disorders
Address: 1University Health Network Women's Health Program, University of Toronto, 657 University Avenue, Toronto, Canada, 2University
Health Network Women's Health Program, University of Toronto, 657 University Avenue, Toronto, Canada, 3University Health Network Women's
Health Program, University of Toronto, 657 University Avenue, Toronto, Canada and 4University Health Network Women's Health Program,
University of Toronto, 657 University Avenue, Toronto, Canada
Email: Enza Gucciardi* - Enza.Gucciardi@uhn.on.ca; Nalan Celasun - Nalan.celasun@uhn.on.ca; Farah Ahmad - farah.ahmad@uhn.on.ca;
Donna E Stewart - donna.stewart@uhn.on.ca
* Corresponding author
                                                                 Abstract
                                                                 Health Issue: Eating disorders are an increasing public health problem among young women.
                                                                 Anorexia and bulimia may give rise to serious physical conditions such as hypothermia,
                                                                 hypotension, electrolyte imbalance, endocrine disorders, and kidney failure.
                                                                 Key Issues: Eating disorders are primarily a problem among women. In Ontario in 1995, over 90%
                                                                 of reported hospitalized cases of anorexia and bulimia were women. In addition to eating disorders,
                                                                 preoccupation with weight, body image and self-concept disturbances, are more prevalent among
                                                                 women than men.
                                                                 Women with eating disorders are also at risk for long-term psychological and social problems,
                                                                 including depression, anxiety, substance abuse and suicide. For instance, in 2000, the prevalence of
                                                                 depression among women who were hospitalized with a diagnosis of anorexia (11.5%) or bulimia
                                                                 (15.4 %) was more than twice the rate of depression (5.7 %) among the general population of
                                                                 Canadian women. The highest incidence of depression was found in women aged 25 to 39 years
                                                                 for both anorexia and bulimia.
                                                                 Data Gaps and Recommendations: Hospitalization data are the most recent and accessible
                                                                 information available. However, this data captures only the more severe cases. It does not include
                                                                 the individuals with eating disorders who may visit clinics or family doctors, or use hospital
                                                                 outpatient services or no services at all. Currently, there is no process for collecting this
                                                                 information systematically across Canada; consequently, the number of cases obtained from
                                                                 hospitalization data is underestimated. Other limitations noted during the literature review include
                                                                 the overuse of clinical samples, lack of longitudinal data, appropriate comparison groups, large
                                                                 samples, and ethnic group analysis.
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Clinical eating disorders include anorexia nervosa and            western Ontario and Charlottetown, more than 25% from
bulimia nervosa. [3] Anorexia is characterized by a               each grade reported not eating breakfast every day, and
severely calorie-restricted diet, resulting in a body weight      there was a sharp increase among girls beginning in grade
that is at least 85% below that expected for age and height.      7.[18] Unhealthy eating patterns in childhood can
[3] Bulimia is identified by frequent fluctuations in weight      adversely affect health, contribute to chronic disease in
and recurrent episodes of compulsive bingeing followed            later life, and often persist into adolescence and adult-
by self-induced vomiting, purging, fasting, laxative use          hood, since change is difficult once eating patterns are
and/or excessive exercise in attempts to avoid weight             established.[18]
gain.[3] Eating disorders not otherwise specified include
behaviours such as chronic dieting, purging and binge-            Morbidity
eating, which do not meet the full criteria for a specific eat-   The starvation associated with anorexia and the chronic
ing disorder,[3] they are two to five times as common as          vomiting frequently associated with bulimia can cause
the clinical eating disorders.                                    serious medical problems, such as hypothermia, hypoten-
                                                                  sion, anemia, osteoporosis, endocrine abnormalities,
Eating disorders are, by and large, a problem among               dehydration, kidney stones, metabolic alkalosis and den-
women. From the data collected in the Ontario Health              tal caries.[1] Girls and women with eating disorders are
Survey, Mental Health Supplement, the lifetime preva-             also at increased risk of menstrual irregularities such as
lence of bulimia (according to the criteria of the Diagnos-       amenorrhea, infertility, [19,20] miscarriages and fetal
tic and Statistical Manual, 3rd revision [DSM-III-R])             complications such as prematurity, low birth weight, mal-
among women aged 15 to 65 was estimated as 1.1% in                formations and low Apgar scores.[1,20-23]
1990.[4] In 1995, 95% of reported hospitalized cases of
anorexia and more than 90% of hospitalized cases of               Mothers who have or have had an eating disorder may
bulimia in Ontario were women.[5]                                 also create abnormal behavioural patterns when feeding
                                                                  their children, such as irregular feeding schedules,
In addition to eating disorders, preoccupation with               detached non-interactive mealtimes, and use of food for
weight and body image, and self-concept disturbances, are         non-nutritive purposes, which may lead to second-gener-
more prevalent among women than men.[4,6-9] Per-                  ation eating problems. [24-27]
sonal, behavioural and socio-environmental factors, such
as negative body image, low self-esteem, fear of becoming         Psychological Morbidity
fat, chronic dieting and social pressures to be thin, are         In addition to depression, anxiety and obsessive-compul-
identified risk factors.[1,6,10-13]                               sive disorders, eating disorders are also associated with
                                                                  diminished libido, altered sleeping patterns, irritability
Body Image                                                        and suicide attempts.[3,28,29] Ontario women with
Body image concerns and preoccupation with body                   bulimia have higher levels of anxiety, depression and
weight and shape increase as girls become older and more          alcohol abuse than those without bulimia.[3,4,29,30]
aware of the idealized societal preference for a thin body        Smoking and substance abuse are much more prominent
shape.[14] The images of women in the media and popu-             among teenaged girls with eating disorders than among
lar culture place pressure on vulnerable young girls and          those with healthy eating habits. [3,17,28] In a recent
women to live up to these expectations, regardless of their       analysis of the 1997 Ontario Student Drug Use Survey,
natural body shape.[8,9] In British Columbia, it was              adolescent females who perceived themselves as over-
found that by age 18, 80% of girls at all weights reported        weight were almost 50% more likely to smoke than those
that they would like to weigh less.[15,16] A school-based         who considered themselves of average weight or too thin,
population study involving 1,739 adolescent women                 whereas weight perceptions were not associated with
aged 12 to 18 years in Toronto, Hamilton and Ottawa               smoking among males.[31] Several studies have suggested
found that current dieting to lose weight was reported by         an association between a traumatic experience (sexual or
23% of participants, binge-eating by 15%, self-induced            physical abuse) and later self-injury. A recent study found
vomiting by 8.2% and the use of diet pills by 2.4%.[17]           that among patients with eating disorders there is a more
                                                                  than 30% lifetime risk of self-injurious behaviour.[32]
Body shape dissatisfaction and preoccupation with weight
are not limited to adolescents but also occur in children.        Mortality
A recent Canadian school-based study concluded that               The rate of death from anorexia is higher than from
34% of prepubescent girls, 36% of early pubescent girls           bulimia because of the complications of starvation and
and 76% of post-pubescent girls were dissatisfied with            electrolyte imbalances, or suicide.[33,34] A recent review
their body shape.[11] In a survey of eating and smoking           reported a mortality rate of 0.6% for anorexia as com-
behaviours among boys and girls in grades 4 to 8 in south-        pared with 0.3% for bulimia.[35] A longitudinal U.S.
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BMC Women's Health 2004, 4:S21                                          http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6874/4/S1/S21
study (21-year follow-up) of 84 women with anorexia            (BMI < 20), acceptable weight (BMI 20–25), some excess
reported that 14 women (16.7%) had died, and 12 of the         weight (BMI 25–27) and overweight (BMI > 27).
14 had died of causes directly related to anorexia; the
observed death rate was 9.8 times greater than                 CIHI
expected.[6]                                                   From the CIHI database, any separations from hospital
                                                               with an ICD-9 code of 307.1 for anorexia and 307.5 for
Socio-Economic Status                                          bulimia and other unspecified disorders of eating from
Although previous studies in Canada and the United             1994 to 1999 were extracted. Crude hospitalization rates,
States have demonstrated differences in education and          age-specific rates, and age-standardized hospitalization
socio-economic status (SES) in the prevalence of obesity,      rates per 100,000 separations across provinces and territo-
[36-38] the relation between eating disorders and SES is       ries were examined. Furthermore, age-specific rates for the
still unclear.[17,39] Jones et al[17] observed that SES was    comorbidity of depressive disorder (ICD-9 code of 311)
not significantly associated with disturbed eating behav-      among those with a hospital separation for an eating dis-
iours in a school-based Ontario population (n = 530),          order were also examined for the year 2000.
findings that are consistent with those of previous studies
and may reflect the pervasive influence of the media on all    Results
SES groups.[39]                                                Prevalence
                                                               The prevalence of eating disorders is difficult to ascertain,
Ethnic Subgroups                                               since many people may not even be aware that they have
Cultural beliefs and attitudes are identified as significant   an eating disorder, are reluctant to seek medical care or
contributing factors in the development of eating disor-       have not been hospitalized. Although epidemiologic
ders.[40] Canadian research on eating disorders and eth-       research can approximate the prevalence of eating disor-
nic background, however, is extremely limited.                 ders within a population, the lack of standard methodol-
                                                               ogies and community samples results in conflicting
A few studies propose that cultural beliefs may actually       estimates.
protect ethnic groups against eating disorders, but their
effect may be eroded as adolescents face pressures of          Hospitalization data are the most recent and accessible
acculturation.[41] A recent study of Mexican-American          information available, but only the more severe cases are
women across generations reported that second-genera-          captured and not the individuals with eating disorders
tion women displayed the most disordered eating pat-           who may visit clinics or family doctors, use hospital out-
terns and the highest degree of acculturation to               patient services or use no services at all. Currently, there is
mainstream U.S. culture.[42] Experiences of cultural           no process for collecting this information systematically
change (such as those of immigrants, for example) may          across Canada; consequently, the number of cases
also increase vulnerability to eating disorders.[43,44]        obtained from hospitalization data is an underestimate.
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FigureSpecified,
Canadian
100,000
erwise   1for
           Inpatient
              Anorexia,
                   1994–1999
                     Crude
                        Bulimia
                            Hospital
                                and Eating
                                     Separation
                                           Disorder
                                                RatesNot
                                                      perOth-   Figureand
                                                                Desired
                                                                egory   3Mean
                                                                          Sex Weight Gain or Loss by Body Mass Index Cat-
Canadian Inpatient Crude Hospital Separation Rates              Desired Mean Weight Gain or Loss by Body Mass
per 100,000 for Anorexia, Bulimia and Eating Disor-             Index Category and Sex Source: Statistics Canada,
der Not Otherwise Specified, 1994–1999 Source: Cana-            National Population Health Survey 1996–1997
dian Institute for Health Information
Figure
Inpatient
Anorexia,
fied by Canadian
        2Crude
          BulimiaHospital
                 Province,
                  and Eating
                          Separation
                           1994–1999
                             DisorderRates
                                       Notper
                                           Otherwise
                                              100,000 Speci-
                                                      for       Figure
                                                                Canadian
                                                                Among
                                                                Not Otherwise
                                                                        Women
                                                                        4 Inpatient
                                                                                 Specified,
                                                                                  with
                                                                                    Age-specific
                                                                                       Anorexia,
                                                                                            2000 Prevalence
                                                                                                 Bulimia andfor
                                                                                                             Eating
                                                                                                                Depression
                                                                                                                    Disorder
Inpatient Crude Hospital Separation Rates per                   Canadian Inpatient Age-specific Prevalence for
100,000 for Anorexia, Bulimia and Eating Disorder               Depression Among Women with Anorexia, Bulimia
Not Otherwise Specified by Canadian Province,                   and Eating Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, 2000
1994–1999 Source: Canadian Institute for Health                 Source: Canadian Institute for Health Information
Information
weight (see Figure 3). Among those who had an accepta-          Depression
ble BMI, between 20 and 25, women wanted to lose an             In 2000, the prevalence of depression among women who
average of 5.3 kg, whereas men wanted to gain an average        were hospitalized with a diagnosis of anorexia (11.54%)
of 2.2 kg. Among those with a BMI between 25 and 27 or          or bulimia (15.36%) was more than twice the prevalence
greater than 27, women wished to achieve a higher aver-         of depression (5.7%) in the general population of
age weight loss than men (8.7 kg versus 5.2 kg and 17.2 kg      women, according to the 1998–1999 NPHS.[45] (For
versus 12.4 kg, respectively). Similarly, among those who       depression rates of the general population please see the
were underweight, with a BMI of less than 20, the average       chapter on "Depression".) The highest prevalence of
desired weight gain was smaller for women than for men          depression was found among women between 25 and 39
(3.6 versus 8.9 kg).                                            years of age for both anorexia and bulimia (see Figure 4).
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