[Eating disorders among secondary students in a health area].
OBJECTIVE
To study the prevalence of eating disorders among adolescent in a health area. Design. Cross-sectional descriptive study.Setting. The primary care centres of secondary education.


METHODS
Students with age between 13-16 years.


METHODS
The validation of the Spanish translation of the Eating Attitudes Test-40 was administered to students, previous authorization of their parents. In the positive cases, we reported with a letter to their parents. The date were incorporate to a data base and in order to their treatment tools of analytic and descriptive statistic they were used.


RESULTS
There were 503 valid questionnaires (95% students of the health area). The absolute mean score was 13.42 points (CI, 12.57-14.28), in women 14.71 points and in man 11.82 points. According to age groups, the mean score for 13, 14.15 and 16 years was 14.05, 13.85, 13.08 and 12.60 points respectively. 16.97% presented >= 20 points (sensitivity, 91%; specificity, 69.2%) and 16.97% of the sample >= 30 points (sensitivity, 67,9%; specificity, 85.9%). There were more positive cases in women than men (2 = 22.4; p < 0.001). The age variable did not show statistically significant differences (2 = 3.379; p > 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
There is a high prevalence of eating disorders among secondary students, being more frequently among women. We think it is necessary to make preventive services task in these problems and seek positive cases.
Moraleda Barba
S
S
Centro de Salud de Sillería, Toledo. smoraleda@eresmas.com
González Alonso
N
N
Casado Viñas
J
J
Carmona De La Morena
J
J
Gómez-Calcerrada Gómez
R
R
Aguilera Sánchez
M
M
Orueta Sánchez
R
R
D000293:Adolescent; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology