Eating attitudes in a group of 11-year-old urban South African girls

Abstract

Objectives-To explore and describe eating attitudes in early pubertal 11-year-old black and white South African girls in an urban environment undergoing transition.Design-The study was designed as a cross-sectional baseline initiative within a longitudinal study.Subjects-Two hundred and two subjects were randomly selected; 54 were white and 148 black. Methods-Subjects completed questionnaires, and anthropometric measurements were taken.Outcome measures-Variables included body mass index (BMI), eating attitudes (EAT score), dietary intake, socio-economic status, pubertal status and level of physical activity.Results-As expected, the prevalence rate of abnormal eating attitudes in this group of girls was low (1%). No significant ethnic differences were found in the total EAT scores. White participants displayed greater oral control, while their black peers displayed greater tendencies toward dieting (p = 0.05). Girls who scored higher on the dieting subscale had a larger body size and were more inactive than low dieting scorers (p = 0.05). A relationship between body size measurements and dietary intake was found only in black girls. Traditionally a larger figure is accepted in black culture. However our data suggest a move away from this, indicating acculturation, as awareness of increased body size significantly influenced dieting attitudes. However, scores were within the normal range.Conclusions-There is early evidence suggesting the impact of societal transition on young black girls with regard to eating attitudes. Black girls in this age group are adopting Western ideals of beauty and thinness.There is a consensus among researchers that abnormal eating attitudes and behaviour predate and increase the predisposition to eating disorders (particularly during adolescence), as these disorders are manifestations of such attitudes and behaviour. There is a paucity of relevant research on early adolescent girls living in a developing country, and few studies have examined ethnic and socio-economic differences.Findings from the USA and Europe1,2 suggest not only that disordered eating behaviours may be increasing in prevalence, but also that the age of onset of these disorders may be decreasing.3,4 Lieberman et al.5 concluded that adolescent body image concerns and dieting prevalence did not change with age; thus girls as young as 12 years old had similar levels of dieting and body dissatisfaction to 16-year-old girls. Moore6 noted that many of his younger adolescent respondents appeared to be attempting weight control without an accurate perception of what was an appropriate age-related weight. Although for many decades it has been assumed that eating disorders occur primarily in Western cultures, particularly among adolescents in middle or upper socio-economic groups, there is growing evidence suggesting otherwise. In the past it was believed that non-Western cultures are 'immune' to disordered eating attitudes. These cultures tend to embrace plumpness and the larger figure is rewarded with respect as it sy...

A review of adolescent nutrition in South Africa: transforming adolescent lives through nutrition initiative

“…The majority of studies were conducted within eight of South Africa's nine provinces (i.e. the country's principal administrative districts); specifically: Eastern Cape (n = 3), 72,75,76 Free State (n = 1), 71 Gauteng (n = 25), 22,26,31,32,[35][36][37]40,46,[48][49][50][51][52][56][57][58][61][62][63]69,[77][78][79][80] KwaZulu -Natal (n = 3), 23,59,60 Limpopo (n = 4), 28,29,81,83 Mpumalanga (n = 8), 44,45,[66][67][68]73,82,86 North West (n = 9) 25,27,30,42,47,64,…”

Assessment of the Dietary Intake of Schoolchildren in South Africa: 15 Years after the First National Study

“…Since 2000, there have been 10 studies [18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27] on children aged 6 to 15 years (Table 1). Seven of the studies used a 24 HR of which one study used two 24 HRs and one used three 24 HRs.…”

“…Three studies used a QFFQ to obtain dietary data. Three studies [18,19,20] were published before fortification was introduced in 2004; three studies were published after 2004, with data collection for two of these studies having taken place before 2004 [21,22] and for one after fortification was introduced [23]. The fortification nutrients were, however, not included in the latter study.…”

“…Overall, there were 10 studies in schoolchildren post the NFCS of which one was in Free State Province [24], two were in North West Province [19,20] and the rest were in Gauteng Province [18,21,22,23,25,26,27]. The majority of studies reflect urban data for black subjects, and with the exception of the North West Province studies [19,20], which had small sample sizes making it difficult to generalize the data.…”

“…With fortification in place since 2004, the expectation would be for any dietary inadequacies in terms of micronutrient intakes that were reported prior to fortification by Labadarios et al [8] in the NFCS), Mackeown et al [18], Schutte et al [19,20], Peterson et al [22], and MacKeown et al [23], would have been addressed. However, review of micro-nutrient intakes reported in the studies included in this review, including the NFCS [8], firstly shows that mean intake of fortification nutrients were not necessarily below the EAR before fortification.…”