EATING ATTITUDES AND BEHAVIORS IN A SWISS STUDENT SAMPLE - SOME PRELIMINARY-RESULTS

This paper reports the results of a pilot study of eating attitudes and behaviours of 150 female and male students, 15-20 years of age. Screening with the EAT-26 revealed 6.4 per cent of the 78 girls scoring in the high-risk range (greater-than-or-equal-to 20 points). Of the females 14 per cent and 4.2 per cent of the males fell in the low-risk range (10-19 points). The additionally administered questionnaires showed significant differences between female and male adolescents but few differences between the risk and the non-risk female group. Further steps in a larger epidemiological study are discussed to find out more details of the development of disturbed eating behaviours and their influence of turning to eating disorders.