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YOUNGER GIRLS SHOWING WARNING SIGNS FOR EATING DISORDERS
21 May 2004 - Duke University
| Disordered eating behavior, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia, affects as many as one in every 10 girls. These psychological disorders, which can be serious and sometimes fatal, typically affect girls between the ages of 14 and 19. |
Disordered eating behavior, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia, affects as many as one in every 10 girls. These psychological disorders, which can be serious and sometimes fatal, typically affect girls between the ages of 14 and 19. But some experts caution that girls are now becoming obsessed with diet behaviors and body shape at a much earlier age. Terrill Bravender, assistant professor of pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center, is medical director of the Duke Eating Disorders Program. "Concerns about body and diet are starting at very young ages, age 7 or 8. One survey a few years ago actually showed that about 40 percent of 9- and 10-year-old girls said that they were on a diet to lose weight." Bravender says we're not seeing younger children afflicted with full-blown eating disorders, but we may be seeing an early warning sign of danger ahead. "The more body and diet concerns that are out there, the more it opens the door for potentially developing eating disorders years hence. If it starts at a younger and younger age, that means we have more and more kids at risk." I'm Cabell Smith for MedMinute.
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About: Duke University
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