Possible Link Between Eating Disorders
& Avid Fans of Health & Fitness Magazines

Teenage girls who use dieting tactics such as appetite suppressant pills, laxatives, vomiting after eating or severely restricting their calories are more likely to be heavy readers of women's health and fitness magazines, a team of researchers reports.

"We found there was a moderate to strong positive association between reading frequency and these dieting behaviors," lead author Dr. Steven R. Thomsen, associate professor of communications at Brigham Young University, told Reuters Health.

To investigate whether there is a correlation between eating problems among teenage girls and the growth in circulation of health-related magazines targeted at young women, the researchers surveyed 498 girls at two Salt Lake City-area high schools, asking them about their weight loss methods and their magazine reading.

The findings were published in the May/June issue of the American Journal of Health Education. The research was funded by a grant from the Wendell Ashton Fund, Thomsen said.

The study found that eating disorders were common: 15% of the girls said they had taken diet pills, 11% had used laxatives, 9% had made themselves vomit, and slightly more than half had restricted their calories to less than 1,200 a day as part of a diet.

Overall, 92% of the girls said they read health and fitness magazines, with 45% of the girls reporting they read the magazines frequently, or at least once a month.

However, the researchers found that girls who used laxatives, diet pills, vomited or ate restricted diets were more likely than girls who did not use such dieting behaviors to be heavy readers of the magazines.

For example, 73% of girls who used diet pills were frequent readers of the magazines, while only 42% of girls who did not use diet pills were frequent readers. Similarly, 79% of the girls who vomited to control weight gain were frequent readers of the magazines, compared to only 43% of girls who did not vomit to control weight gain.

However, the study does not prove that the magazines caused such a reaction in the girls. It is also possible, Thomsen noted, that girls with a propensity to abusive dieting sought out such magazines for dieting tips and ideas.

"We can't state that one causes the other," Thomsen said. "Based on all the previous research we've done and what these young women have told us, I believe that young women who already have begun to develop eating disorders may turn to these magazines for reinforcement and information. I think the best argument is that they serve as a perpetuating function rather than an initiating function."

Thomsen said that editors and writers for the magazines need to keep in mind that these women may distort the health-oriented messages they send. "They need to be aware that there is a group that takes a message different than what it is intended to be," he said. "Even when these magazines attempt to advise or suggest moderation, sometimes, the young women focus on the images and pictures, ignoring the advice but remember seeing thin bodies."

Finally, parents should "not panic" if their daughters read the magazines, but should investigate the girls' motives for doing so, he said. "I would question, 'why are you reading them, how do you feel about your body,'" he said. "That would give me a cue to the mental state of my daughter."

Source: American Journal of Health Education 2001; 32: 130-135.