Tímea KRIZBAI (KOVÁCS)*
University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary
Sapientia-Hungarian University of Transylvania, Targu-Mures, Romania
Abstract
The present paper is an epidemiological study of eating disorders in Romania that analyses the prevalence of eating disorders in the Transylvanian high school population. We surveyed 2396 high school adolescents (1140 male, 1256 female), of which 1312 were Hungarian and 1084, Romanian. The prevalence of anorexia nervosa (AN) was 0.6% in the Romanian female sample; no clinical cases of AN were found in the Hungarian female sample. The prevalence of subclinical AN was 0.4% in the Hungarian female sample and 1.9% in the Romanian sample. The prevalence of bulimia nervosa (BN) was 1% in the Hungarian and 1.3% in the Romanian female samples. The prevalence of subclinical BN was 0.8% in the Hungarian female sample and 0.7% in the Romanian female sample. We have not found clinical or subclinical AN in the male sample but the prevalence of BN was 0.2% in the Hungarian male sample. The prevalence of subclinical BN was 0.3% in the Hungarian male sample and 0.5% in the Romanian male sample. Our results draw attention to the presence of eating disorders in Romanian adolescents, possibly due to the internalization of Western values and beauty ideals.
Keywords: eating disorders, epidemiology, Romania, Eastern-Central Europe, high school students
Pages: 77-86
