Prevalence of Anorexia Nervosa among Adolescent Girls

Prevalence of Anorexia Nervosa among Adolescent Girls

During the adolescent period, girls are more concerned about their appearance than boys. Therefore, teen girls tend to reduce their weight while avoiding to get fat. This leads to a condition called Anorexia nervosa (AN). Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder of self-starvation due to bad body shape. In this condition, the individuals starve themselves so that they can lose more weight and gain a good body shape. This idea of not being happy with one’s body image is referred to as body dissatisfaction. It leads to low self-esteem and bad eating patterns. Boys are also affected though at a lower percentage compared to girls. The purpose of this study is to find out the prevalence of anorexia among teen girls and to find out the relationship between the prevalence and the selected demographic variables. The study was conducted among 100 B.Sc.

Nursing 1st-year students at selected nursing colleges of Mangalore. A convenience sampling method was used in sample collection. Informed consent and ethical consideration were adhered to in the study. Data was collected using the baseline and the eating attitude test. The results showed that 31% of the teen girls had a risk of anorexia, while 69% had no risk (Umarani & Annamalai,  2016). There was no risk of anorexia and the selected variables. In conclusion, people perceive anorexia to be a mere condition that requires less attention, but instead, it is a psychological problem that needs attention. The teachers have the responsibility to educate adolescents about anorexia and the effects so that the incidences can be reduced and promote health in society.

Anorexia as an eating disorder among the youths, specifically, girls is increasing worldwide due to fear of obesity. Therefore, this article is important because it focuses mainly on eating disorders among teen girls, who are the primary victims. The author needs to have included both the restrictive type and the binge-eating type of anorexia. The sample size of the research was too small to generalize the results.

 

Reference

Umarani, J., & Annamalai, A. A. (2016). Prevalence of anorexia nervosa among adolescent girls. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Science, 15(3), 466-470.