[Eating disorders among Spanish university students].

OBJECTIVE

This present work assesses the prevalence of anorexia nervosa, its partial syndromes, bulimia nervosa and binge eating in a university sample of Galician students (Spain).

METHOD: The sample is made up of 298 women and 157 men. The scales used were: Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) and a Questionnaire on eating behavior.

RESULTS

Women had higher scores in drive for thinness, bulimia, interoceptive awareness, body dissatisfaction and ineffectiveness than men; furthermore the women had lower scores in BMI. We find a very high prevalence, a total of 6.4% of cases of eating disorders.

CONCLUSIONS

The high values of probable eating disorders make it especially necessary to carry out primary and secondary prevention programs in university students populations.