PREVENTION OF DISTURBED EATING BEHAVIOR - A PROSPECTIVE INTERVENTION STUDY IN 14-YEAR-OLD TO 19-YEAR-OLD SWISS STUDENTS

Subsequent to an epidemiological study on eating behaviour in adolesce nts, a prospective study was carried out to examine the effect of heal th promotion lessons on disturbed eating behaviour. From the original sample (t(1), n=1944), a subgroup of 314 students of both sexes, 14-19 years of age, was selected. Participants came from a total of 20 clas ses in which a high percentage of students exhibited disturbed eating behaviour. Ten classes were then randomly selected to receive health p romotion lessons (intervention group, high-risk; IGHR), while the othe r 10 classes served as controls (control group, high-risk; CGHR). The Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), the Giessen Physical Complaint List fo r Children and Adolescents (GSCL-C) and the Self-Report Symptom Check- List (SCL-90-R) were administered shortly before (t(2)) and 3 months a fter (t(3)) the interventions. The three health promotion lessons deal t with issues concerning beauty ideals, gender differences in psychose xual maturation and body awareness, healthy eating behaviour, physiolo gy of nutrition, early symptoms of eating disorders and therapeutic ap proaches. The data analyses revealed an improvement on all three sympt om scales for both groups between t(2) and t(3), but there were no sig nificant differences between the IGHR and CGHR groups. When data from high-scoring female participants only were analysed (HRf-IGHR and HRf- CGHR), the multivariate analysis revealed a significant interaction be tween time and group (15.2% of variance explained). Our experiences in implementing health promotion lessons that conveyed knowledge about e ating disorders and addressed physical and psychological issues in a m ore general way indicated that these interventions can be carried out in schools, and may contribute to increases in physical and psychologi cal well-being in a high-risk population of adolescents.