Eating disorders in medical students from PUC-SP

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study aims to identify the presence of signs and/or symptoms of eating disorders among the female students of the first year and fourth year of PUC-SP Medical School and to compare the results in order to asses whether there is or not the influence of college environment in the burgeoning or worsening of this signs and/or symptoms. The sample was composed by 85 Medical School female students in their twenties (46 from the first year and 39 from the fourth year). For this purpose the students themselves filled in two forms to evaluate the eating behavior. These forms contain the Bulimic Investigation Test of Edinburgh (BITE) and the Eating Attitude Test (EAT-26). The following tests were used to analyze the results: the chi-square test, the G Cochran Test and the Mann-Whitney Test. According to BITE, 2,20% of the fourth year students presented risk behavior for bulimia and 6,50% of the first year students presented significant severity symptoms of eating disorders while 10.30% of the fourth years students presented significant symptoms. According to EAT, 28,30% of the first year students and 28,20% of the fourth year students showed risky behavior for nervous anorexia. After analyzing and comparing the results, it can be concluded that there is a dominance rate of suggestive behavior of eating disorders compatible with the one described in the literature for young women but this rate is inferior to the rate found in other studies carried out with college students. No correlation was found between the university environment and the burgeoning or the worsening of these disorders.