The Prevalence Of Binge Eating Disorder And Associated Psychiatric And Substance Use Disorders In A Student Population In Kenya – Towards A Public Health Approach

Abstract

Background: Changing lifestyles in Kenya can lead to eating related behaviors and problems. The more severe problems are likely to manifest in clinical settings, but the majority and less severe forms will remain unrecognized. There is therefore the need to take a public health awareness approach to identify cases at community level and initiate appropriate intervention. This requires characterization of Eating Disorders (ED) and its associations in the local context. Our focus will be on the more common Binge Eating Disorder (BED). The overarching objective of this study is to generate Kenyan data on BED and fill a gap that exists not only in Kenya but Africa in general. The specific aims are: (1) To document the patterns and prevalence of different symptoms of BED in a student population whose age range represents a significant proportion of the population. (2) To determine associated psychiatric and substance use disorders (3) To determine independent predictors of BED. Method: We administered to a total of 9742 participants following tools: A researcher designed socio-demographic and economic indicators questionnaire; an instrument on DSM-IV diagnosis of BED and its various symptoms; instruments to determine DSM-IV psychiatric disorders, substance abuse, affectivity, psychosis and stress indicators. The participants were high school, college and university students in four out of the 47 counties in Kenya. We used descriptive and inferential analysis to determine prevalence and association of the different variables. The independent predictors of BED were generated from the generalized linear model (p<0.05). Results: We found a prevalence of 3.2% of BED and a wide range of BED symptoms varying from 8.1% to 19.0%. There were significant (p<0.05) associations between BED with various socio-demographic variables and psychiatric and substance use disorders. However, only some of these disorders were independent predictors of BED. Conclusion: Our findings on prevalence of BED and significant associations with various psychiatric disorders and substance use disorders are similar to those obtained in HICs using similar large scale samples in non-clinical populations. Economic status is not a predictor of BED. Our findings suggest a public health approach to awareness and management.

The Relationship Between Peer Influence and Alcohol Use Among School-Going Adolescents in Kasese Municipality, Uganda

“…Alcohol use among adolescents is a public health concern and has been studied extensively in many parts of the world (NACADA, 2012). Several studies from other countries reported that teenagers were found to be involved in substance use at an early age, approximately between 11 and 14 years (Alhyas et al, 2015;Mutiso et al, 2021;Ogundipe et al, 2018). Peer influence is emotional or mental influence from people belonging to the same social group (such as age, grade or status) to act or behave in a manner similar to themselves (Weinfied, 2010).…”