Nursing Research
The authors aim was to examine gender differences in the prevalence of eating disorder symptoms (EDS), in occurrence of health-risk factors, and to examine associations between health-risk factors and EDS. The authors’ noted that EDS has a greater preponderance among girls than boys. There is no concrete evidence for this gender discrepancy. The strategies used to prevent eating disorders (ED) among adolescents were done to understand the gender differences and their related factors. This cross-sectional study was conducted in a school health setting covering eighth grade students in a secondary school in Finland. The two sources of data were SCOFF (‘Sick’, ‘Control’, ‘One’, ‘Fat’, and ‘Food’) screening questionnaire and their school health-care records. The self-administered questionnaire includes five items addressing intentional vomiting, loss of control over eating, weight loss, body dissatisfaction and food intrusive thoughts; and it was completed by participants in the schools nursing office. The ethical committee of the Hospital District of Southwest Finland and the local school health-care authority approved the study protocol. The study was supported by research grants from the Foundation for Nurse Education, Yrjo Jahnsson Foundation and Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation. The authors have multiple literature reviews in Finland and in the United States with effective preventions for ED with adolescence. At the time of publication, the study indicated that every fifth adolescent has EDS, females more than males. Both genders are substantially similar in their susceptibility to the same health-risk factors. The authors also contributed that young people in general were dissatisfied with their appearance and their weight. Other contributing factors to ED are the use of tobacco, irregular eating patterns and poor parent-adolescent communication. I suggest secondary school students should be screened annually for ED and early intervention should start immediately thereafter to prevent future health risk factors for these future young adults.
