Eating disorder features in indigenous Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian peoples

Phillipa J. Hay, Chris Carriage

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    21 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Background: Obesity and related cardiovascular and metabolic conditions are well recognized problems for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. However, there is a dearth of research on relevant eating disorders (EDs) such as binge eating disorder in these groups. Methods. Data were obtained from interviews of 3047 (in 2005) and 3034 (in 2008) adults who were participants in a randomly selected South Australian household survey of individuals' age > 15 years. The interviewed comprised a general health survey in which ED questions were embedded. Data were weighted according to national census results and comprised key features of ED symptoms. Results: In 2005 there were 94 (85 weighted) First Australian respondents, and in 2008 65 (70 weighted). Controlling for secular differences, in 2005 rates of objective binge eating and levels of weight and shape influence on self-evaluation were significantly higher in indigenous compared to non-indigenous participants, but no significant differences were found in ED features in 2008. Conclusions: Whilst results on small numbers must be interpreted with caution, the main finding was consistent over the two samples. For First Australians ED symptoms are at least as frequent as for non-indigenous Australians.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number233
    Number of pages7
    JournalBMC Public Health
    Volume12
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2012

    Open Access - Access Right Statement

    © 2012 Hay and Carriage; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

    Keywords

    • Aboriginal Australians
    • Torres Strait Islanders
    • binge eating
    • cardiovascular system
    • eating disorders
    • obesity
    • public health

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