Anorexia in Teens - Literature review Example

Anorexia in Teens Introduction Anorexia is a Latin word means lack of appetite. Anorexia Nervosa(AN) is one of the serious eating disorders which is characterized by low body weight(less than 85% of the expected body weight)and the false feeling of the patient that she/he is overweight driving the patient to starving and more weight loss (Kreipe, 2007). Multiple factors are included in the etiology and maintenance of the common eating disorders which are AN, and Bulimia Nervosa (BN), which are societal, individual, and familial factors (Hall and Cohn, 1999; Wiseman et al., 1998; Zerbe, 1993). I summarized two articles about AN, showing the prevalence, etiology, manifestations and management together with showing how media influences teens to stay thin. My hypothesis suggests that AN in teens is strongly related to the growing influence of media. Both conditions, AN, and BM, are characterized by body dissatisfaction and perfectionism concern (Cook Cottone, and Phelps, 2oo6). The prevalence of AN, in female teens, is about 0.3% and ten folds of the male teens (APA, 2000; Rastam and colleagues, 2004). The mortality incidence is from 5% to 10% of the affected persons (Keel & Herzog, 2004) as a complication of starving and malnutrition. There are many modalities for treating AN in teens which reflect the absence of one successful treatment due to the multiplicity of the underlying causing factors which emerge the need for more investigations and more studies which may not concentrate on AN as a medical, mental or societal case but as all of these together. There is also increasing role of media and internet in particularly which may has negative and positive effects on the anorexic patients. Etiology and Predisposing Factors In addition to the individual personality and family inherited genes (Pichot P., 1995) there are two important factors which are body dissatisfaction and slimming dieting both powered and enhanced by different media (Stein D, Meged S, Bar T, Elizur A, Weizman A, 1997; Lyon M, et al., 1997; Lee S, 1997). Martin, et al. (1999) conducted a study, including 630 school children of 14-18 years of age, to find out and evaluate unhealthy eating behavior and its relation with eating disorders. They used a transversal survey covered many schools, academic (public & private), and vocational education, both genders, and different areas in the city of the study. The questionnaire included 57 questions divided into three sections: the first covered the personal information, self body satisfaction, use of slimming medicine, desire for eating, forced vomiting or use of purging after eating and periods of abstinence of eating. The second section covered t he different types of food served in meals and snacks eaten in between. The third section tailored for evaluation of the nutritional information known by the student. Heights and weights of all participants in the sample were determined by the same tools. Data of the sample were collected and divided into two categories, the first one consisted of students who reported that they were following slimming diet and lack of appetite, not advised by any healthcare person, together with the students who stated that they were eating large quantity of food between meals, not related to anxiety, and if accompanied by forced vomiting, or usage of laxatives, or taking fiber-rich food. This behavior coincides with the characters of AN and BN as reported by other studies (Serra L, Aranceta J, Mataix J, 1995; Toro J, 1988; Gomez J, Lopez MR, 1996). The second category included the students who had none of the characters of the first one. The results of the study found that 46% of the students having abnormal eating behavior and 11.3% of these students following slimming diet, not advised or supervised by healthcare personnel. The rest of these students were eating large quantities of food in between meals, in absence of stress, i.e. 88.7% of this category. Female sex in this category was two folds more than male. Data, regarding weights of the students of the first category, revealed that 26% of low weight, 55.4% of normal weight, and only 3.2% of frank obesity, indicating that the abnormal eating behavior was not well-grounded to excuse loss of weight. Abnormal eating habits were highest in the youngest students of academic schools, the second was the students of vocational education, and the last came is the elder students of the academic schools. It is noted that the study did not approve my hypothesis, the influence of the media and its relation with the eating disorders, maybe because it was not in the scope of the study. The predominance of females over male with only two folds in association with changed eating behavior, the authors of this study explained the difference between this result and the results of other studies, where the researchers found females were 9-11 folds more than males of same age having eating disorders (Morande G, 1994; Saldana C, 1994), by the increasing incidence of eating disorders in males due to the increasing of male interest in body image. Early detection of eating disorders is required for better outcome, together with learning teens by different means the healthy eating habits and providing different healthy food, recommended by the authors of this study (Martin et al., 1999). The Influence of Media and Its Relation with Eating Disorders Research by Katzmarzyk and Davis (2001) showed that 70% of current Playboy models were underweight comparing them with those of the previous 25 years (Katzmarzyk & Davis, 2001). Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann, and Ahrens (1990) showed that more than half of female media personalities coincide with characters of AN (Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann, & Ahrens, 1990). Andrist (2003) reviewed the literature examining the relation between the media, body image, and eating behavior in children and young women. The researcher found that the media had great effect in making unpractical body image of extremely thin models as ideal, and meanwhile most of female adolescents could not attain this very thin body image, resulting in feeling of body dissatisfaction, failure of perfection, and consequent eating disorders (Andrist, 2003). The National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), (2002) reported that fashion models are markedly thinner than 98% of all American women. The power of advertising media shown by Cortese (1999) who found that 500-3000 advertising images were exposed daily in the United States (Cortese, 1999). Andrist, (2003) defined the objectification theory, proposed by Fredrickson and Roberts, (1997) as the feeling of the women and girls as being treated as a body alone. This body concern, worrying about weight, and abnormal eating, were found more frequent in female teens than in elder females (Fredrickson, Roberts, Noll, Quinn, & Twenge, 1998; Greenleaf, 2001; Tiggmann& Lynch, 2001). Surprisingly, in addition to the presence of web sites which provide alarm against the abnormal eating habits, which predict eating disorders, there are some web sites which drive the teens to convert them from altered eating behavior to disordered eating. Furthermore, Andrist (2003) found on web site, which supposed to support patients already diagnosed as having eating disorder, many advertising images showing very thin fashion models (Andrist, 2003). This author recommended family nutrition education, helping children to grow positive body image, and teaching the children, and teens, healthy eating habits. The author suggested providing help to women to be as they are without feeling dissatisfied and changing the super-thin ideal image (Andrist, 2003). From all these data we can conclude that media can get a great role in correcting its mistakes regarding the ideal thin image by driving the children and teens to value the personal quality more than the external appearance. This study approved my hypothesis. References American Psychiatric Association [APA]. (2000). The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Disorders, 4th edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR). Washington, DC: Author. Andrist, L. (2003). 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