Eating Disorders in Young Women

The research concerns with the problem of eating disorders, which are called anorexia nervosa and bulimia, their morbidity statistics, causes and consequences. These diseases are of considerable interest from a medical point of view, since they have a quite high prevalence and they cause serious consequences up to a lethal outcome. Anorexia significantly reduces the quality of life of the patient leading to amenorrhea in women, absence of libido, decrease of body temperature, demineralization of bones, which causes their fragility, swelling, bradycardia, thickening of the blood, which leads to complication and disruption of work of the heart, frequent faints, etc., up to irreversible metabolic changes and death. Thus, according to the World Statistics, 0.25-1.3% of the total population suffers from anorexia, while among girls and women in the world who are 10-24 years the number of patients with this disorder reaches 9.1-18%, i.е. every tenth young woman among the whole population came across it on her own experience (and this percentage is the greater, the higher is the standard of living in a single country). From 7 to 20% of all cases of the disease lead to death; in a quarter of cases patients remain with chronic secondary diseases; about 40% of those who took treatment return to anorexic food behavior; and only a quarter of the total number of cases are completely treated. Also, the article demonstrates the lack of information about the prevalence of anorexia nervosa and bulimia among the student's population, especially in young girls in Ukraine. The study of the predisposition to eating disorders and the identification of the number of potential patients is important among the severity of these diseases, as well as their complicated and prolonged therapy. The article also provides the factors that lead to these disorders. The purpose of the study was to analyze the characteristics of eating behavior, as well as the identification of a tendency for anorexia and bulimia by analyzing the body mass index and questioning on the example of KhNMU students. The authors developed a study of eating behavior and body mass indices of a group of female students of KhNMU in order to reveal the parameters of BMI (deficiency, norm or excess) and a psychological predisposition to anorexia and bulimia, as well as the interrelation of these two indicators with each other. The analysis of the results of the study demonstrated the percentage of people with body mass index belonging to the probable risk group. Also, the authors identified the number of people with a clear tendency to anorexia, which in this case requires specialist's advice, while the BMI for this category did not go beyond the normal value. The authors traced the dependence of the tendency of the examined girls to anorexia and bulimia in relation to their body mass index. Thus, in persons with a deficiency of weight, lability of eating behavior was revealed, in combination with the most frequent use of artificial methods of reducing body weight. In people who are overweight, mixed dynamics in relation to the control group was present, and in girls with a body weight deficiency, a high rate of diet compliance was found in combination with a high level of self-control of food intake by artificial methods.