Eating Problems and Related Weight Control Behaviour in Adult Japanese Women

Abstract

Background: Fewer studies concerning eating problems have been conducted in adult than in adolescent female populations. The aims of this study are to ascertain the proportion of eating problems and clarify weight control behaviour in adult Japanese women. Methods: This study employed a questionnaire survey with a cross-sectional design. Subjects were adult females aged 20–39 years, working in a computer factory. Four hundred and six women agreed to participate in the study. The questionnaire elicited self-reported age, body height, body weight and various histories of dieting, fasting and purging behaviour. The Eating Attitudes Test 26-item version (EAT-26) was also administered. Subjects showing an EAT-26 score equal to or greater than 20 were identified as having eating problems. Results: Among the subjects, 172 women (42.4%) had some history of dieting behaviour and 24 (5.9%) had some history of fasting behaviour. Regarding misuse of laxatives, diet pills and diuretics for the purpose of weight loss, 50 (14.3%) were past or current users of diet pills, followed by 42 (10.3%) laxative abusers and 15 (3.7%) diuretic abusers. Six (1.5%) subjects had an EAT-26 score of 20 or greater, 5 (1.9%) in their 20s, and 1 (0.8%) in her 30s, the difference not being statistically significant. Conclusions: Although dieting behaviour is common in adult Japanese working women, the proportion of eating problems is low in comparison with Western adult populations.

Eating‐disordered behavior in Australian and Singaporean women: A comparative study

“…18,19 In those few community-based studies of eatingdisordered behavior conducted in south-east Asia, the assessment has been confined, almost entirely, to reports of mean scores on subscales of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) or Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI), along with the proportion of participants scoring above the suggested EAT cut-off for a probable eating disorder. [3][4][5][6][20][21][22] As suggested earlier, these studies have found that levels of body dissatisfaction and overall eating disorder psychopathology in newly industrialized Asian countries are as high as, if not higher than, those observed in Western nations. More specific information, however, is lacking.…”

“…In a study of female factory workers in Japan, Nakamura et al 20 similarly found that the use of laxatives (3.7%) to control weight was more common than strenuous exercise (1.5%). There may be a link between the prevalence of nonpurging and purging weight-control behaviors in a given population, so that purging behaviors are more common in populations where opportunities for physical activity are more limited.…”

The eating disorders medicine cabinet revisited: A clinician's guide to appetite suppressants and diuretics

“…Early surveys summarized in our 1988 article indicated that diuretic use was not uncommon among high-school and college-age students, with the prevalence of use rates generally around 3% to 5% (Halmi, Faulk & Schwartz, 1981;Johnson, Lewis, Love, Stuckey, & Lewis, 1983;Killen, Taylor, Telch, Saylor, Maron, & Roginson, 1986). More recent reports tend to support the continued use of diuretics in various populations, including high school students (Emmons, 1992;Neumark-Sztainer, Story, Resnick, & Blum, 1998), as well as adult women (Nakamura, Hoshino, Watanabe, Honda, Niwa, & Yamamoto, 1999). Various reports have also documented the risk for diuretic abuse among patients with eating disorders, including anorexia nervosa (Davidson & Silverstone, 1972;Tajiri, Nakayama, Sato, Isozaki, & Uchino, 1981;Wolff et al, 1968), and bulimia nervosa (Pyle, Mitchell, & Eckert, 1981;Russell, 1979).…”

The clinical presentation of Japanese women with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa: A study of the Eating Disorders Inventory-2

“…To date, assessment of eating pathology in Japan has been limited to subjective measures designed for a particular study (e.g., Suematsu et al, 1985) or to data from the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT) administered to community samples of adolescent girls and women without diagnosed eating disorders (e.g., Mukai & McCloskey, 1996;Nakamura et al, 1999). Because the EAT is primarily an assessment of symptoms associated with AN, it is not the best instrument to describe the multidimensional aspects of eating pathology across the range of eating disorders.…”