A study of abnormal eating attitude among Jordanian female college students

Abstract EN

Background : Eating Disorders (ED) have been elassically considered as a western culture bound syndrome and almost unknown in eastern cultures.

Recent studies have shown * abnormal eating attitudes among Arab women, and in particular young girls who are exposed to the western values through the media (global village).

Methods : Two hundred and one female college students were randomly chosen from the female nursing students from Princess Muna Nursing College (PMNC) and Jordan University (JU) with age range of (17-21) years.

All participants were assessed using the Arabic Version of Abnormal Eating Attitude Scale, which consists 0،' 40 items in a 6 points Likert scale.

Results : The results of the study showed that 12.4 % (25 girls out of 201 screened girls) of the sample had abnormal eating attitudes and were over concerned with food and body image.

The highest score with the mean of 40.8 (among the girls who scored above the cut off of 30) came from the lower social class.

Girls from middle social class had the mean score of 40.5 and came second.

The lowest mean score of 33 was obtained from girls belonging to the higher social class.

Conclusion and Recommendation : This study showed a high percentage of abnormal eating attitude among Jordanian girls who were screened in the sample.

Girls who scored above the cut off point needed to be interviewed for the purpose of diagnosis and possible clinical intervention.

W'e believe that (ED) is not rare in the Arab cultures, therefore educating the public through the media and improving teaching to the junior Doctors and Nurses would probably help to unmask a serious disorder.