title: Abnormal eating attitudes among a group of Nigerian youths: II. Anorexic behaviour.
abstract: A survey of a total of 644 female Nigerian high-school, college and university undergraduate students was conducted to examine abnormal eating attitudes associated with anorexic behaviour. Using a cut-off score of 20 on the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26), overall prevalence of disordered eating attitudes was found to be 14.1%. Prevalence figures for the high-school, university, and college samples were 18.6%, 9.1% and 21.7% respectively. These findings are comparable to those from western countries and suggests that nowadays abnormal eating attitudes associated with anorexia behaviour may be a universal phenomenon that transcends cultural boundaries, contrary to the earlier notion that they were restricted to western countries.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Evaluation Unit, London Psychiatric Hospital, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: L K
authors.initials: LK
authors.lastname: Oyewumi
authors.forename: S S
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Kazarian
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012574:Schools; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014495:Universities