A two‐stage epidemiologic study on prevalence of eating disorders in female university students in Mexico

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: This study investigated the prevalence of eating disorders (ED) in women. METHOD: Two samples of university students (1995, n = 522; 2002, n = 880) completed the Eating Attitudes Test and the Bulimia Test (BULIT; Stage 1). During Stage 2, the women that exceeded the cut-off point of one or both questionnaires and a random sample of women that did not exceed the cut-off point were interviewed. RESULTS: The results showed a prevalence rate of 0.49% for ED in 1995 (0.14% for bulimia nervosa [BN] and 0.35% for EDs not otherwise specified [EDNOS]) and a prevalence rate of ED of 1.15% in 2002 (0.24% for BN and 0.91% for EDNOS). Anorexia nervosa was not found in either of the evaluated periods. Nevertheless, the results must be taken with reservation since there was a high rate of loss to follow-up (second stage). DISCUSSION: The data of this study support the findings of other studies, including studies with Spanish-speaking samples, that EDNOS is the most common ED followed by BN and AN.