PREVALENCE OF EATING DISORDER AMONG ADOLESCENTS GIRLS AND BOYS OF AGE GROUP 15 – 19 OF DHARAN SUB METROPOLITAN CITY

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was carried out to assess the prevalence of eating disorder in age group of 15-19 years of adolescents girls and boys from of Dharan sub-metropolitan city. Data were collected using pretested, semi structured questionnaire to obtain information on socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, food habits, risk of ED, physical activity level, dietary intake, stress level etc. Anthropometric measurements were used to determine BMI. Data collected was analyzed using SPSS Version 25, MS- excel 365, WHO Anthro plus version 1.0.4. Descriptive statistics were used for finding prevalence of eating disorder and Chi-square test were used to analyze the factors associated with eating disorder risk. The study depicted the risk of eating disorder was 23.9% among girls and 22.5% among boys. The result showed a significantly higher percentage of total boys (99.1%) and girls (98.9%) had adequate calorie consumption. All boys and girls of age group 15, 16-18, and 19 years consumed CHO more than the RDA, whereas protein and fat consumption was lower in almost all age groups. It was found that there was a significant association between BMI of boys with the prevalence of eating disorder(p-0.000), while no significant association was found between BMI of girls with the prevalence of eating disorder. Nearly half of the sample population (48.3%) had knowledge about eating disorder, among which girls outnumbered the boys by 4.2%, to which majority of respondents were aware through school (47.90%), followed by social media (28.6%), family members (17.9%) and friends (5.7%). Stress and physical activity were found to be statistically associated with eating disorders in girls whereas total number of family members was found to be related with eating disorder in boys. Since the study results showed notable risk of eating disorder among both girls and boys, necessary awareness programs should be conducted to draw attention towards prevalence of eating disorder and its management.