engleski

A pilot questionnaire survey on eating disorders in Slavonian middle aged women

Background: Body weight (expressed as body mass index – BMI) is considered a reflection of one's constitution, dietary habits, physical activity, aging, and, in certain cases, of some illnesses including eating disorders (ED). ED is becoming more common in middle and late life, especially among women, but often goes unrecognized. Methods: This pilot survey included 200 employed middle-aged women of mean age 47 who filled up two commonly accepted questionnaires (SCOFF and ESP) as a screening tool of ED in women and gave additional information about profession, co-occurring illnesses and relevant anthropometrical measures. Data were analyzed by SPSS version 11.0 ; SPSS inc., Chicago, USA. Results: We found mean BMI of 25.4±3.9 (16.8-38.6). There were 36% of overweight and 13% of obese (grade 1 and 2) women. The number of women with low BMI was negligible. There were no co-occurring illnesses affecting BMI values. According to SCOFF and ESP 20-30% of women should be further investigated for ED presence, percentage being cut in two under the condition of both questionnaires being positive. The percentage was growing with age and BMI and was the largest in major groups 2-4 of International standard classification of occupations (ISCO-88). Conclusions: The applicability of the SCOFF and ESP should be further investigated as to determine the false positive rate if used as screening tools in the Slavonian middle-aged women population. Our preliminary results suggested that some professions could be under the raised risk of ED as well as the risk of obesity.

eating disorder; SCOFF; ESP; middle-aged women; Slavonia; Croatia

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