Eating Disorders and Adolescent Health

Eating disorders impact on both physical and mental health with a profound disruption in the quality of life of adolescent. The prevalence of these disorders has been increasing in East Asia and over 10% of young people have some eating disorder related traits. Cultural changes such as the internalisation of the thin ideal predispose to eating disorders. The core features of eating disorders are the pursuit of weight loss and the resultant low body weight or compensatory behavior. The nutritional compromise of eating disorders, particularly anorexia nervosa, results in disruption in menstrual cycle, increased medical risks, and an eventual increase in mortality. The mortality rate of anorexia nervosa is 12 times the rate of healthy age-matched women. The underlying medical causes of the increased mortality rate were cardiovascular, endocrine, hematopoietic, autoimmune, respiratory, and urogenital in nature. High frequencies of medical complications in eating disorders emphasizes the importance of recognizing eating disorders as a medical risk in adolescent in Korea. Successful approaches to prevention against eating disorders have already been developed for adolescent in Europe. Public health interventions targeted at schools responsible for the care of adolescent (parents, teachers, college tutors) would be useful in Korea.