An Internet-based program may help prevent eating
disorders in college-aged women who are most at
risk, results of a study suggest.
"I suppose the most important
message is that eating disorders can be prevented,"
Dr. C. Barr Taylor, of Stanford University in
California stated.
"Internet based prevention interventions can
be effective and reach large populations at relatively
low cost," he added.
Up to 4 percent of young women have anorexia
nervosa, bulimia, or binge-eating disorders, and
many more are known to be partially affected by
these disorders, without displaying the full range
of symptoms.
Women often start showing signs of eating disorders
around 16 to 20 years of age, around the same
age that many leave home for college.
In a short-term study involving a small number
of women, an Internet-based program helped reduce
young women's concerns about their weight and
body image.
To replicate the findings on a larger scale,
Taylor and his colleagues recruited 480 college-age
women from the San Diego and San Francisco Bay
Area who were at risk for developing eating disorders,
based on their scores on a scale that measures
a person's concerns about their weight and shape.
Women who participated in the Internet program,
Student Bodies, were expected to read and complete
weekly online assignments, participate in online
discussion groups and self-monitoring, and/ or
write entries in a journal for an eight-week period.
The other women, who were randomly assigned to
a comparison group, were offered the opportunity
participate in the program at the end of the study.
Over three years, 43 women fully or partially
satisfied the criteria for a diagnosis of bulimia
or binge eating disorder, Taylor and his team
report in this month's Archives of General Psychiatry.
Participation in the Student Bodies program decreased
the onset of eating disorders in two groups: those
who had taken diet pills or laxatives, made themselves
vomit or otherwise used compensatory behaviors
at the start of the study and those who initially
had a high body mass index.
Four percent of study participants in the San
Francisco Bay Area with compensatory behaviors
developed eating disorders one year after participating
in the program, for example, in comparison to
16 percent of those who did not participate in
the program.
Also, 14 percent of program participants developed
an eating disorder at two years after the start
of the program, in comparison to 30 percent of
those in the comparison group.
None of the women with a high body mass index
who participated in the Internet program developed
an eating disorder. In contrast, nearly 5 percent
of non-program participants with an initially
high BMI developed an eating disorder by the first
year and 12 percent developed an eating disorder
by two years.
"In general, college-age women should adopt healthy
eating and exercise habits as a way to control
their weight," said Taylor. "College-age women
should not over emphasize the importance of weight
and shape and who they are or use their weight
and shape as a main source of self-esteem and
self-worth," he added.
In light of the findings, however, "college-age
women interested in reducing weight and shape
concerns should be offered appropriate interventions,"
Taylor stated, noting that "the interventions
can be inexpensive and delivered on-line."
SOURCE: Archives of General Psychiatry, August
2006.
