Epidemiology of eating behavior disorders in Spain

Abstract

Considerable advances have been made in research of epidemiology of eating behavior disorders in Spain. This report summarizes recent studies. This review suggests that the prevalence of abnormal eating attitudes and behaviors in Spanish clinical and non-clinical populations is not markedly different from that already reported for other developed countries. The wide range of variation in published prevalence rates for eating disorders in adults and adolescents can be understood in the face of the many methodological problems inherent to this type of research. Anorexia nervosa and related eating disorders are most commonly investigated in adolescent girls and young women and a number of researchers have investigated prevalence rates in this «high risk» group. No good epidemiological research has been carried out with child populations and male populations.