Santonastaso P, Zanetti T, Sala A, Favaretto G, Vidotto G, Favaro A
Istituto di Clinica Psichiatrica, Università di Padova, Italia.
Psychother Psychosom. 1996;65(3):158-62. doi: 10.1159/000289069.
To date, the number of epidemiological studies on eating disorders (ED) in Italy and in other Mediterranean countries is still limited. This study evaluated the eating attitudes and the prevalence of eating disorders in a sample of 359 16-year-old Italian schoolgirls.
The study followed a two-stage procedure consisting in a first screening stage followed by clinical interviews. A third stage consisting in a case register study and a 1-year followup confirmed the importance of evaluating subjects who chose not to participate in the survey.
Prevalence rates found in our sample are consistent with those of other prevalence studies conducted on adolescent girls: 0% for anorexia nervosa, 0.5% for bulimia nervosa and 3.7% for ED not otherwise specified. Also some important features associated with the presence of an ED appeared to be present in Italian female students, as in Anglo-Saxon populations: the tendency towards denial that led to an overrepresentation of ED among nonrespondents, and the ascertainment that just a small proportion of people seeks help for ED. The Italian sample reported higher scores on eating attitudes test compared to Anglo-Saxon samples.
No evidence of different rates of ED was found in our Italian sample in comparison with non-Mediterranean samples. The importance of using a two-stage design and a third control stage in prevalence studies is emphasized by our findings.
迄今为止，意大利和其他地中海国家关于饮食失调（ED）的流行病学研究数量仍然有限。本研究评估了359名16岁意大利女学生样本中的饮食态度和饮食失调患病率。
该研究采用两阶段程序，包括第一阶段的筛查，随后是临床访谈。第三阶段包括病例登记研究和1年随访，证实了评估那些选择不参与调查的受试者的重要性。
我们样本中发现的患病率与其他针对青春期女孩进行的患病率研究一致：神经性厌食症为0%，神经性贪食症为0.5%，未另行指定的饮食失调为3.7%。与盎格鲁-撒克逊人群一样，意大利女学生中似乎也存在一些与饮食失调相关的重要特征：否认的倾向导致未回应者中饮食失调的比例过高，以及仅有一小部分人因饮食失调寻求帮助的确定情况。与盎格鲁-撒克逊样本相比，意大利样本在饮食态度测试中的得分更高。
与非地中海样本相比，我们的意大利样本中未发现饮食失调率存在差异的证据。我们的研究结果强调了在患病率研究中采用两阶段设计和第三控制阶段的重要性。
