Avaliação de sintomas de transtornos alimentares em alunos de uma universidade pública

Abstract

Evaluate symptoms of risk for anorexia nervosa and bulimia through 2 validated tests, it seems a simple and easy task. But this study shows the challenge of this procedure. This study aims to evaluate the relationship of University course chosen with the symptoms of eating disorders, investigating the relationship between the sexes. Methodology: the target population was composed primarily of students from classes of 3rd period. The identification of the symptoms of eating disorders was held through two questionnaires: EAT (Eating Attitudes Test) and BITE (Bulimic liars Inventory Test Edinburgh), plus a demographic questionnaire for stratification of the data according to age, sex, year and the identification number. A descriptive analysis of categorical variables, through frequency distribution tables. The continuous variables were analyzed by means of measures of central tendency and variability. To compare the final results of the scales EAT and BITE by sex, period and course was used Chi-square test of Pearson for comparing proportions, or the Fisher exact test, which is appropriate for cases where samples are used with small frequencies. All analyses were made to the total Group, students from 18 to 20 years incomplete and students with 20 years or more who were willing to participate. In all analyses, a 5% level of significance. SPSS software was used, version 1.0. Results: of 374 students interviewed, 57.2% of the students interviewed were female, and 29.9% had less than 20 years of age. The median age was almost 22 years, with a maximum of 45 years. 6.7% of total students surveyed reported symptomatic behavior scale EAT (score > 21). In addition, 28.7% showed unusual food standard, i.e. BITE between 10 and 19. Only 2.9% showed great and compulsive feeding behavior to bulimia. The other courses of exact sciences (mathematics, computer science, actuarial science, physics and computational mathematics), the nutrition courses and music did not submit any case EAT larger greater than 21. The highest prevalence were observed for courses of Medicine (9.1%); other courses of Health Sciences (9.5%); and Humanities (9.8%). However, we cannot say that there is significant difference between the courses (p value = 0.614). With respect to the period, the higher prevalence of EAT larger than 20 occurred to pupils of 3rd period (7.2%), and the smallest (3%), for the 1st and 2nd periods. Significant difference between the prevalence of EAT changed between men and women (<0,05). percebe-se="" que="" a="" prevalência="" de="" eat=""> 21 p-value was 10.2% among women, and only 2% among men. With respect to age, there was no significant difference (p value > 0.05); the prevalence of EAT > 21 was 7.5% among students aged under 20 and 6.1% among those aged 20 or more. Final thoughts: The high prevalence in female students, corroborated with other aspects of literature, the propagation of ideal of leanness this specific population. No statistical significance, but the difference in prevalence among the courses chosen demonstrates the need to implement new</0,05).>methods of evaluation as show some results.