Abnormal eating attitudes among a group of Nigerian youths: II. Anorexic behaviour.

A survey of a total of 644 female Nigerian high-school, college and university undergraduate students was conducted to examine abnormal eating attitudes associated with anorexic behaviour. Using a cut-off score of 20 on the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26), overall prevalence of disordered eating attitudes was found to be 14.1%. Prevalence figures for the high-school, university, and college samples were 18.6%, 9.1% and 21.7% respectively. These findings are comparable to those from western countries and suggests that nowadays abnormal eating attitudes associated with anorexia behaviour may be a universal phenomenon that transcends cultural boundaries, contrary to the earlier notion that they were restricted to western countries.