Factors Affecting Eating Disorders in Iranian Adolescent Girls: A Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The World Health Organization declared eating disorders a priority, considering the risks they pose to adolescents' health, especially girls, except for neurological and mental diseases. Knowing the factors related to this problem can be a basis for designing timely and effective interventions. Therefore, this study aimed to identify factors related to eating disorders among Iranian adolescent girls.

METHODS

This scoping review was based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA-SCR). A comprehensive literature search with related keywords was conducted on the Web of Science, PubMed, Scopus, and two Iranian databases, SID and Magiran, without a time limit. The articles were selected based on the entry criteria. After removing duplicates and checking titles, abstracts, and full text, 12 articles were included in the analysis.

RESULTS

Factors affecting eating disorders in Iranian adolescent girls were classified into two main categories: individual (lifestyle and diet, psychological factors, body shape, and menstrual age) and social (family's socioeconomic status, social pressures, and increased awareness).

CONCLUSIONS

Eating disorders in adolescent girls are related to several factors. This issue helps to understand the consequences of developing eating disorders and provides the possibility to increase the existing interventions and ultimately improve the treatment for adolescents. Interventions can include education about healthy nutrition, correct information about body image, family support, conducting psychological sessions, and encouraging girls to be physically active.