A cross sectional study on eating disorders among college students in Bagalkot city.

Introduction: Young adulthood is a stressful transition period that may increase the risk for disturbed eating, especially for college students. The prevalence of eating disorders (ED) in this part of the world (South East Asia) is lower than that of Western countries but appears to be increasing. There are very limited studies on Eating Disorders in India. So, we conducted this study to determine the prevalence of eating disorders. Aim: To find out the prevalence of eating disorders among college students of Bagalkot city. Methodology: A Cross sectional study was conducted among 489 students from eight colleges in Bagalkot city. A pre tested, semi structured questionnaires were used and BMI were noted. Results were tabulated using Microsoft excel 2007 and chi square tests used to find the association. Results: In the present study 65.85% were girls and 34.15% were boys. Majority (31.09%) belong to class III socio-economic class (SEC) and 89.78% reside at hostel. The prevalence of study participants with disturbed eating attitude and serious ED was 12.68% and 2.86% respectively. Among ED, two third (78.57%) were more than 21yrs old (p<0.001), maximum among female( 92.86%) (p=0.03), more than one fifth (28.57%) are medical college students and majority (71.43%) were from urban background(p<0.001). ED was more prevalent (64.29% ) among class I SEC (p< 0.001). The risk of ED was for female (OR=0.14, 95%CL-0.01-1.10), urban background (OR=2.3, 95%CL-0.71-7.46) and statistically significant for students staying away from home (OR=13.7, 95%CL-4.5-41.4) Conclusions: Eating disorder is strongly correlated with the urban background and higher socio economic status. Awareness regarding eating disorders should be emphasized among youth, parents and public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]