Eating disorders identification of risk cases among students from Querétaro

AbstractEating Disorders [ED] are a serious public health problem, internationally recognized. Through the project “Razones de Peso”, (Reasons that Determine Weight) in 2013 research was carried out in public junior high schools in the City of Santiago de Querétaro. The objective was to identify the risk of suffering from ED among adolescents based on the presence of Disordered Eating Behaviors [DEB] and preoccupations associated with ED. The sample consisted of 435 students (224 girls and 211 boys) with an average age of 13.83 (SD=.12). The instrument used was a version of the EAT-26 questionnaire, adapted, validated and recommended by Garner (2004a), the original questionnaire author. The results highlights the elevated prevalence of concerns associated with ED (5.9%) and DEB (33.1%) in male and female students. Moreover, both the group considered “at risk of developing an ED” as the students group that expressed having DEB, were composed by a higher percentage of boys rather than girls. It is recommended the implementation in two phases studies, with statistical samples made up of girls and boys and the validation with a Mexican population of the EAT-26 version used for this study