In anorexia nervosa and associated factors in female adolescents city in south of Brazil

The objective was to identify the prevalence of anorexia nervosa symptoms and its associations with body mass index (BMI) and body size satisfaction among female adolescents. It is a cross-sectional population based study of 407 adolescents aged between 14 and 19, including the BMI assessment, the Eating Attitude Test and the Silhouette Scale. The association between the dependent and independent variables was performed by the univariate analyses and followed by a multivariate analysis with adjusted logistic model. The prevalence of symptoms of anorexia nervosa was 15.97%, and the adolescents who are dissatisfied with their body image have 2.56 (IC 1,11-5,83) times increased risk of developing symptoms of anorexia. Most of them are eutrophic (83.78%), and there was no connection between the presence of symptoms of anorexia and the BMI. The results suggest that body dissatisfaction is related to the symptoms of anorexia, which indicates the need of a multidisciplinary performance with the population.