More than half of high school students report disordered eating: a cross sectional study among Norwegian boys and girls

PLoS One. 2015 Mar 31;10(3):e0122681. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0122681. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

Disordered eating and eating disorders are of great concern due to their associations with physical and mental health risks. Even if adolescence has been identified as the most vulnerable time for developing disordered eating, few studies have used a broad spectrum of criteria to investigate the prevalence of disordered eating among high school students of both genders, in different programs of study, nor assessed correlates of disordered eating among this important target group. The purposes of this study were therefore to investigate the prevalence and correlates of disordered eating among both male and female high school students in sport-, general and vocational programs. A comprehensive questionnaire was completed by 2,451 students (98.7%), aged 15-17 years. The total prevalence of disordered eating was 54.9%, with 64.3% among girls and 45.0% among boys (p<0.001). The highest prevalence of disordered eating was found among vocational students (60.7%), followed by students in general programs (49.8%) and sport students (38.3%) (p<0.001). Female gender, school program (vocational and general), overweight/obesity and weight regulation were positively associated with disordered eating. The high prevalence indicates the importance of tailored prevention efforts directed at high school students, particularly in vocational programs. Furthermore, a smaller girls-boys ratio than expected indicates that the efforts to identify and manage disordered eating among high school students should include both genders.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Body Mass Index
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / epidemiology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Norway / epidemiology
  • Prevalence
  • Surveys and Questionnaires

Grants and funding

The main project was supported with funding partly by the Norwegian Olympic and Paralympic Committee and Confederation of Sports and partly by the Aust-Agder and Vest-Agder Counties in the south of Norway. No grant numbers are included in the allocation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.