Correction of psychological aspects of eating disorders in adolescents is essential to prevent weight gain or loss. Neuroendocrine rearrangement in adolescence increases the risk of eating disorders. Therefore, it is relevant to study the features of psychological predictors of eating disorders in a healthy population without clinically significant changes in body weight, as well as at the stage of reversibility of clinically detectable eating disorders.
OBJECTIVE
To identify the features of eating disorders in older school-age adolescents, considering the correspondence of body weight to height.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
The study included healthy adolescents with no endocrine and gastrointestinal disorders. At the beginning of the study, body weight and height were measured in adolescents using standard medical devices, and the body mass index was calculated. At the next stage, an online survey of adolescents was carried out using the Dutch eating behavior questionnaire (DEBQ, 1986, the Netherlands).
RESULTS
The study included 196 adolescents (101 females and 95 males) aged 15 to 17 years (mean age 16.8±0.91 years). Excess body weight was detected in 12 (10.6%) adolescents, low body weight in 42 (21.3%), and normal body weight in 142 (72.2%). Most overweight females had severe eating disorders according to restrictive, emotional, and external eating behavior scales. The same pattern was revealed in females with normal body weight. In contrast, eating disorders were not identified in most overweight males. However, according to restrictive, emotional, and external eating behavior scales, most males had severe eating disorders. The correlation between body weight and eating behavior scores was negative in overweight males. In overweight girls, the weight gain was positively correlated with increased control over their diet. The observation that the lower the weight, the higher the severity of the external behavior (according to an assessment using an appropriate scale) in females and males with a body weight deficiency was confirmed by the identified negative correlation and provided a scientific basis for measures to increase the body weight of such adolescents by influencing the desire to eat by external factors. On the contrary, the same pattern revealed in adolescents with normal body weight should cause caution and be considered a risk of excess body weight due to food intake, not because of hunger, but because of attractiveness and accessibility.
CONCLUSION
Clarified data on the features of eating disorders in older school-age adolescents required scientific rationale for the effective preventive strategy aimed at preventing overweight or body weight deficiency due to psychological factors. It is relevant to develop standard eating behavior scales for adolescents.
