The prevalence, incidence and development of eating disorders in Finnish adolescents: a two-step 3-year follow-up study.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the prevalence, incidence and development of eating disorders and subclinical eating pathology.

METHOD: A two-step three-year follow-up study on eating disorders in adolescence (N = 595) was conducted in western Finland. A screening questionnaire followed by a semi-structured interview was used to determine the prevalence, incidence and development of eating disorders.

RESULTS: The lifetime prevalence rates for females age 18 were 2.6% for anorexia nervosa (AN), 0.4 for bulimia nervosa (BN), 7.7% for AN-NOS, 1.3% for BN-NOS and 8.5% for subclinical eating disorders. No prevalent case of DSM-IV eating disorders was found among the male participants. The incidence rate of any eating disorder in females age 15-18 was 1641 per 100 000 person-years.

CONCLUSION: Eating disorders are relatively common in female adolescents. As many as one in five adolescent females are or have been struggling with eating disorder related issues during their teenage years.