Eating Disorder a Risk in Sorority, Dorm Students
Fri Aug 9, 5:42 PM ET
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - College students who belong to live-in sororities may be at higher risk for developing an eating disorder than those women living in dormitories, according to a survey of students at one Michigan university.
Sorority members were more likely to use diet pills, avoid high fat foods and report that their weight concerns interfered with their social relationships than women who did not belong to sororities.
However, the researchers found no statistical difference between women considered "at risk" for eating disorders who belonged to a sorority (13%) and those living in college dorms (10%).
Those who were considered "at risk" had scores high enough on a test of disordered eating to warrant a doctor's visit, but did not have an actual diagnosis of anorexia or bulimia, according to the report in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
The risk for an eating disorder tended to vary by sorority, with a high of 15% in one sorority where all of the women lived in the same sorority house.
Research suggests up to 5% of college women have been diagnosed with an eating disorder like anorexia or bulimia, and experts speculate that many more of these women have eating problems that have not been diagnosed.
In the new study, Dr. Sharon L. Hoerr and colleagues at Michigan State University in East Lansing distributed surveys to men and women that asked about their eating attitudes and habits and got useable responses from 1,620.
They found that almost 11% of all women and 4% of men were at risk for eating disorders. Hoerr's team also found that about 17% of women surveyed and 10% of men said their weight concerns interfered with their academic performance.
"Students at risk for disordered eating report weight concerns interfering with their academic performance and include both men and African Americans, as well as Caucasian American women," they write. "Sorority women living in separate residences might be at increased risk."
SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Nutrition 2002;21:307-314.
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