Abstract
Recently, the prevalence of eating disorders has remarkably increased among adolescent girls. However, an insufficient number of medical institutions provide appropriate care and treatment for eating disordered patients. The establishment of a system for prevention, early detection, and treatment is necessary. Because the onset of these disorders is especially high among adolescent girls, especially those at the age of puberty, we focused on the situation of teenagers at school, because that is where they spend most of their time. We, therefore, did an eight prefecture survey of school nurses that inquired about the risk factors, early detection methods and prevention currently in place in their schools. The survey was conducted by a self-reported questionnaire (1,197 junior and 1,055 senior high schools in 8 prefectures : from November, 2002 to June, 2003). The recovery rate was 54.7% (59.9% for junior high schools; 48.7% for senior high schools). The questionnaire asked about the eating behavior observed by school health professionals, about any current student problems that might possibly be related to known risk factors for eating disorders, and about the cooperation between schools and medical institutions. The findings were as follows : Improper eating behavior and the eating lifestyle of many students has recently increased, along with the incidence of eating disorders. A shortage of community medical institutions suitable for referral and a lack of cooperative relationships between the schools and medical institutions were noted. This study revealed for the first time the feelings of school health professionals concerning disordered eating among junior and senior high school students in Japan. As such, it is an informative step toward developing programs for the early detection of the disorder and for the establishment of countermeasures.
