Body image disturbance in young North European and East Asian women with and without eating disorders in Australia and in Singapore

Abstract

Socio-cultural factors other than body image may play more important roles in SC women's ED psychopathology.

Eating psychopathology and psychosocial impairment in patients treated at a Singapore eating disorders treatment programme

“…The EDE-Q subscale scores in our study were similar to those found in earlier studies, (11,13) which may imply that there was a consistent trend from 2007 to 2012 for body image concerns and eating psychopathology in our local population.…”

“…The profile of participants in our study was also similar to the Singapore arm of studies by Soh et al (11,13) in terms of gender and ethnicity distributions, and average age and BMI at presentation, suggesting that the demographic characteristics of new presentations have not shifted much over the years. Although these studies had a small sample size of Singaporean Chinese patients, they were the only local studies with which we could compare our cohort.…”

“…(12) A study that compared the psychopathology of young women of different ethnicities in Australia and Singapore reported that those with eating disorders had similar psychopathology across ethnicities, whereas a higher level of eating disorder psychopathology was found in Singaporean controls than their Australian counterparts and expatriate Singaporeans. (11,13) Another study examined the level of eating disorder behaviour in healthy controls from Australia and Singapore using the EDE-Q. (14) It reported that even though the overall levels of eating disorder psychopathology were very similar between the two populations, Singaporean women were found to be more Eating psychopathology and psychosocial impairment in patients treated at a Singapore eating disorders treatment programme fearful of losing control over their eating and of weight gain or becoming fat, and more anxious at the prospect of weighing themselves regularly.…”

Eating‐disordered behavior in Australian and Singaporean women: A comparative study

“…1,2 Thus, findings from recent studies suggest that levels of body dissatisfaction, preoccupation with thinness, and other aspects of eating-disordered behavior in ''newly industrialized'' Asian nations, such as Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan, may be as high as, if not higher than, those observed in Western nations. [3][4][5][6][7][8] However, evidence concerning the prevalence and presentation of eating-disordered behavior in these regions remains limited in several respects. For one thing, much of the research involves case series of patients receiving specialist treatment.…”

“…Recently, Soh et al 7,8 compared eating disorder psychopathology between Singaporean women and Australian women using the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q), 23 a measure that provides for the assessment of both attitudinal features and the occurrence and frequency of specific eating disorder behaviors. 23,24 As in other studies, Soh and colleagues found high levels of eating disorder psychopathology in Singaporean women higher than those of both Australian women and expatriate Singaporeans.…”