Women with eating problems: a community survey.

A survey was conducted of the eating habits and attitudes of a sample of young adult women. Each woman was asked whether she considered herself to have an eating problem. The sample comprised 369 attenders at a family planning clinic. Self-report assessment procedures were used, including the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Eating problems were reported by 20.6 per cent of the sample. Factors which strongly discriminated between those with an eating problem and the remainder were binge eating and a high score on the EAT. Other important factors were laxative use and high levels of psychological morbidity. Self-induced vomiting was only weakly associated with reporting an eating problem, and past and present weight were unrelated to such reports.