Abstract
In an attempt to elucidate the incidence of anorexia nervosa, an epidemiologic study was performed in Ishikawa prefecture using a total of 36,403 girls and 37,520 boys in junior and senior high schools, which amounted to 80% of all the pupils registered in Ishiwaka prefecture in 1981. During the initial screening, 84 girls and 122 boys were picked up according to the following three criteria; 1) marked weight loss of at least 3 months duration, 2) hyperactivity or no decline of activity in spite of extreme thinness and 3) taking pleasure in extreme thinness or complete unconcern regarding extreme thinness. Furthermore each subject was surveyed using a questionnaire construted by the author. Finally, 16 girls and one boy with anorexia nervosa were found according to the three diagnostic criteria which are as follows; 1) weight loss of at least 20% of the standard weight, 2) amenorrhea or oligomenorrhea and 3) a distorted attitude and behavior toward eating and/or an ideal thin body. Thus the average incidence of this disorder was ascertained as 50.4 and 3.1 per 100,000 population in junior and senior high school girls and boys respectively. The significant differences in incidence were found between Kanazawa City, the biggest city in Ishikawa Prefecture (74.5 per 100,000 population) and other districts (Kaga districts outside Kanazawa City, 20.9 per 100,000 population and NOto districts, 46.4 per 100,000 population), and between senior high school girls (95.8 per 100,000 population) and junior high school girls (62.8 per 100,000 population) only in Kanazawa City. These data suggest that some aspects of city life may be causally related to the vulnerability of this disorder in adolescent girls, particularly in those of late adolescence. This study was supported by the Research Grant for Intractable Disease from the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan.
