When you think of health problems that children face around the world, what comes to mind? Probably things like diseases, injuries, or not having enough to eat.
However, there’s another issue that affects children worldwide, and it might not be what you expect.
It’s about how they eat – not just what they eat or how much, but their overall approach to food.
More than one out of every five children worldwide struggles with this issue, known as “disordered eating.”
This surprising fact comes from a big review of studies published in JAMA Pediatrics, a well-known medical journal.
What is Disordered Eating?
Disordered eating means having an unhealthy relationship with food. It might mean eating too much, not eating enough, or feeling guilty or upset about eating.
Sometimes it can lead to more serious problems like eating disorders. For example, a child with disordered eating might become obsessed with dieting, start binge eating, or develop anorexia or bulimia.
Understanding the Study
A team of researchers led by Dr. José Francisco López-Gil from the University of Castilla-La Mancha in Spain wanted to understand how common disordered eating is among children.
To do this, they looked at a bunch of studies conducted between 1999 and 2022. These studies included kids aged 6 to 18 from 16 countries and used a questionnaire to understand their eating habits.
This questionnaire, called the SCOFF questionnaire, asks five questions. SCOFF stands for Sick, Control, One, Fat, Food.
Each question relates to a sign of disordered eating. For example, one question asks if the person ever feels sick because they eat too much.
The researchers looked at 32 studies in total, which included 63,181 children. They found that about 22.36% of children – that’s more than one in five – showed signs of disordered eating.
In other words, they answered “yes” to at least two questions on the SCOFF questionnaire.
The problem was more common in girls than boys. About 30.03% of girls showed signs of disordered eating, compared to 16.98% of boys.
The researchers also found that disordered eating became more common as children got older and if they were heavier.
What This Means for Us
These numbers are concerning. They show that disordered eating is a big problem for children around the world. As a society, we need to be aware of this and work to prevent eating disorders.
This is a problem that affects children in all kinds of communities, in many different countries. We need strategies to prevent, detect, and address disordered eating.
We need to teach kids about healthy eating and body image, and we need to support them if they’re struggling with these issues.
The first step is understanding the problem. By knowing how common disordered eating is, we can start to plan for how to help. It’s time to take this issue seriously and work to create a healthier future for our children.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies about why vitamin K is so important for older people, and this snack food may harm your heart rhythm.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about vitamins that may protect you from type 2 diabetes, and results showing this common chemical in food may harm your blood pressure.
The study was published in JAMA Paediatrics.
Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
Copyright © 2023 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
