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Abnormal eating attitudes and behaviours in two ethnic groups from a female British urban population

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

David Reiss
David Reiss*
Affiliation:
Academic Department of Psychiatry, Royal Free Hospital, London
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr David Reiss, Department of Forensic Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF.
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Synopsis

African-Caribbean (N = 136) and White British (N = 192) female family planning clinic attenders were administered the Bulimic Investigatory Test, Edinburgh (BITE) and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28). A proportion of the participants were subsequently interviewed. The African-Caribbeans were found to have both significantly more disordered eating attitudes and a significantly higher level of abnormal eating behaviour than the White British. Although the African-Caribbean group had a significantly higher mean Body Mass Index this did not mediate the difference in levels of eating attitudes. When compared with the White British group more African-Caribbean women reported feelings of failure, guilt, abnormality and self-consciousness concerning their eating habits. The results indicate that eating problems may be highly prevalent in this ethnic minority population and suggest that there may be differences in the nature of eating disorder psychopathology between ethnic groups.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , March 1996 , pp. 289 - 299
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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