Conductas alimentarias de riesgo, interiorización del ideal estético de delgadez e índice de masa corporal en estudiantes hidalguenses de preparatoria y licenciatura de una institución privada.

The term «eating behavior» is immediately related to food consumption. However, eating is a complex behavior mediated by external factors. Eating is not exclusively related to satisfying individual's needs or nutritional requirements. Eating behavior alteration has originated disordered eating (DE) and eating disorders (ED), such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and binge eating syndrome, where patterns of food ingestion are altered and people forget the importance of maintaining a balance between caloric ingestion and caloric expenditure, with repercussions in the nutritional status and in the individual's health. Recent studies carried out in Mexican population have confirmed the presence of DE, particularly among adolescents and young adults, and predominantly in females. Data from a representative sample of students with a mean age of 14.5 years reported an increase in the proportion of DE between the 1997 and the 2003 assessments (1.3% in males and 3.4% in females) compared to the 3.8% in males and 9.6% in females registered in 2003. More recent data from the National Nutrition and Health Survey 2006, in a representative sample of adolescents 10 to 19 years of age, indicated a prevalence of 0.8% (1% in females and 0.4% in males), with higher scores in the north and center-west areas of the country, followed by the central and south-south-east areas, with almost two-fold percentages in the urban settings compared to the rural ones. The multifactorial origin of ED is well known and among the most studied risk factors are: eating behaviors, high body mass index (BMI) and body thin-ideal internalization. Research findings indicate that overweight and obese adolescents are at more risk for body dissatisfaction, as their physical appearance is farther away from being as the one promoted by society and the media. The sociocultural pressure to be thin has promoted the internalization of the idea that being thin is synonymous to success, greater social acceptance, femininity (among females), self-control, and selfesteem. Based on the above, the main purpose of this paper was to evaluate the prevalence of DE and its relationship to body thin-ideal internalization and BMI in high school and college male and female students from an urban setting. An additional objective was to provide data on reliability and validity of the scales used in a sample of males, as well as additional validity data in females. Data analyzed in this research come from a larger study on risky factors associated to ED carried out in high-school and college students in the city of Pachuca, Hidalgo, during the 2007-2008 school years. After censing the school, a sample of 845 students was selected (381 males, 464 females), 45.1% was from high school, with a range of 15 to 17 years(X=15.82; D.E.=0.78), and 54.9% from college with a range of 18 to 23 years(X=19.81; D.E.=1.41) and that completed the questionnaires adequately.… [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]