This
research I found from International
Journal of Eating Disorder studied whether the college women with diet aids
use are at risk of eating disorder and the demographic
and psychosocial characteristics associated with their diet aids use. The research was
conducted by 484 college women with age below 30 years old from 6 different
universities in San Francisco area and San Diego. They were accessed with
whether they had used diet pill, far blocker, diuretic, laxative, and other
diet aid over the past 12 months. They use WCS, a five-item questionnaire that
assess through weight and shape, fear of gaining weight, dieting frequency, importance
of weight, and feelings of fatness as one of the tools to find the relationship
between diet aid use and weight and shape concerns. With score range from 0 to
100, the higher the score the greater weight and shape concerns.
The
result of this study shows that 32% of the college women from both cities admit
using more than one dietary aid to help them lose weight and stay in shape in
the past 12 months. The college women in San Diego reported using diet aids was
twice as much as college women in San Francisco area with 44% in respect of
22%. Diet pills are the most popular one among all the diet aids used by
college women. The participants with diet aids use scored high on WCS. The
study reveals that 79% women from San Diego region score high on WCS used diet
aids. It also appears that the longer you stay in school the higher rate of the
diet pill use among women. With 46% diet pill use among sophomores or above
compares to 14% rate among freshmen.
In
the conclusion, the result shows that there is a significant number of college
women in both areas at risk for eating disorders use diet aids. Among all
different types of diet aids, diet pills are the most common one used. The data
collected demonstrate that college women in these two regions with higher rate
of diet aids use are at risk of developing eating disorder. It is recommended
that the health care authority should show concern and inquiries on young women’s
dietary aids use because more and more women are concerned with their weight
and shape.
Reference
Christine
I. Celio, Kristine H. Luce, Susan W. Bryson, Andrew J. Winzelberg, Barby
Cunning, Roxanne Rockwell, Angela A. Celio Doyle, Denise E. Wilfley, C. Barr
Taylor. (2005, May 31). Use of Diet Pills and Other Dieting Aids in a College
Population with High Weight and Shape Concerns. International Journal of Eating Disoders 39:6 492-497 2006-DOI
10.1002/eat Retrieved Mar 20, 2012 From http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.proxy.lib.sfu.ca/doi/10.1002/eat.20254/pdf