Eating disorders in Austrian men: An intracultural and crosscultural comparison study

Background: We compared 30 male university students with eating disorders and 30 male comparison subjects without eating disorders recruited by advertisement at Innsbruck University, Austria. Methods: Subjects were interviewed using instruments that we had previously used in a controlled study of college men with eating disorders in the United States. Results: The Austrian men with eating disorders differed sharply from Austrian comparison subjects, but closely resembled their American counterparts, on prevalence of personal and familial psychopathology, adverse family experiences, and scores on rating scales for eating disorder. Interestingly, dissatisfaction with body image was consistently greater among American subjects regardless of eating disorder status. Conclusions: Our data suggest a weak association between eating disorders and homosexual or bisexual orientation in men, and no consistent association between eating disorders and childhood sexual abuse.