A two-stage epidemiologic study on prevalence of eating disorders in female university students in Wuhan, China

Background The community prevalence of eating disorders among Chinese young women may now be similar to their western counterparts. Aim To investigate the prevalence of eating disorders (ED) in female university students in Wuhan, China, using a two-stage design. Method In stage one, 99.1 % ( N = 8,444) of eligible students ( N = 8,521) completed the eating disorder inventory-1 (EDI-1) and a survey of relevant anthropomorphic data. A total of 421 women scored above the cut-off for EDE-1, as defined by a set of criteria similar to those of Keski-Rahkonen (Int J Eat Disord 39:754–762, 2006 ). 257 (61 %) of these case-positive women and a random sample of case-negative women (312 out of 8,023, 4 %) whose scores did not exceed the defined cut-off were interviewed using the eating disorder examination (EDE) and the structured clinical interview for DSM-IV axis I disorders (SCID-I). Results On interview with the SCID-I, 79 women were diagnosed with an ED. Among them, 10 had anorexia nervosa (AN), 21 bulimia nervosa (BN), and 48 binge eating disorder (BED) The results showed a prevalence rate of 1.05 % (95 % CI = 0.02–2.08) for AN, 2.98 % (95 % CI = 1.21–4.74) for BN, and 3.53 % (95 % CI = 1.75–5.30) for BED. Conclusion The prevalence of ED among female university students in China is now similar to that of their western counterparts, and BED is the most common ED followed by BN and AN similarly.