A controlled assessment of school-based preventive programs for reducing eating disorder risk factors in adolescent Spanish girls

Eat Disord. 2008 May-Jun;16(3):255-72. doi: 10.1080/10640260802016852.

Abstract

This study assesses the impact of an eating disorders universal preventive program on a representative sample of Spanish adolescents in the area of Barcelona, Spain. 323 adolescent girls were assigned to three experimental conditions: complete intervention, partial intervention, and non-treatment. The program obtained a significant change in reducing the influences of the aesthetic body ideal and in improving the knowledge of nutrition. Nevertheless, attained post-treatment changes dissipate at the 6 month follow-up. In our opinion, the lack of lasting effects should be attributed to a series of considerations such as format, tests not validated for this age, or insufficient research.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Multicenter Study
  • Randomized Controlled Trial

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Body Image
  • Body Mass Index
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy*
  • Cross-Cultural Comparison*
  • Culture
  • Curriculum
  • Esthetics
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / prevention & control*
  • Feeding and Eating Disorders / psychology
  • Female
  • Health Education*
  • Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
  • Humans
  • Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care
  • Personality Inventory
  • Risk Factors
  • Spain
  • Thinness / prevention & control
  • Thinness / psychology