Prevalence of anorectic symptoms in school-age children in the Czech Republic

The present study aims to evaluate the prevalence of anorexia nervosa symptoms in a representative sample of school-aged children (N = 4653). Besides filling in of a questionnaire the respondents were also measured and weighted. Low BMI was used as a screening criterion for anorexia. One per cent of boys and 2.1 per cent of girls aged 11, 13 and 15 years had body weight lower than the critical BMI value set for a given age group, which corresponded to a BMI of 17.5 in the adult population. 0.17 per cent of the girls and 0.04 per cent of the boys fulfilled all the MKN-10 criteria. Regardless of the amenorrhea criterion that was not available, 0.35 per cent of the girls fulfilled the criteria of anorexia nervosa. 0.84 per cent of the girls met wider criteria of anorexia nervosa (low body weight, distorted body image). The results of the study suggest a large variability of basic diagnostic criteria of anorexia nervosa, especially the difficulty to set a clear border between the norm and the pathology with regard to body and eating habits.