Eating Behaviors among an Egyptian Sample of First Year Female Medical Students

Abstract

Eating behavior is a broad term that encompasses food choice and motives, feeding practices, dieting, and eating-related problems such as obesity, eating disorders, and feeding disorders (LaCaille, 2013), disordered eating behaviors include: engagement in fasting, binge eating, self-induced vomiting, diuretic abuse, laxative abuse to control weight, having very little amount of food, using food substitutes like powder or special drinks, skipping meals, or smoking cigarettes. Eating disorders and feeding disorders include: AN, BN, ARFID, BED, OSFED, AFED, Pica, rumination disorder and night eating syndrome (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The prevalence of eating disorders is: lifetime prevalence of AN is 0.5% in women, BN 1 to 3% of women, BED was approximately 3.5% among women, ED-NOS grew to represent 40 to 60% of patients presenting to ED specialty clinics, and up to 90% of ED cases in general psychiatric settings (Stice et al., 2009; American Psychiatric Association, 2000; Preti et al., 2009).