Abstract
BackgroundMany studies have focused on the decreasing age of onset of eating disorders (EDs). Because school-age children with EDs are likely to suffer worse physical effects than adults, early detection and appropriate support are important. The cooperation of Yogo teachers is essential in helping these students to find appropriate care. To assist Yogo teachers, it is helpful to clarify the encounter rates (the proportion of Yogo teachers who have encountered ED students) and kinds of requested support (which Yogo teachers felt necessary to support ED students). There are no studies that have surveyed the prevalence rates of ED children by ED type as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), nor were we able to find any quantitative study surveying the kinds of support Yogo teachers feel helpful to support ED students.MethodsA questionnaire survey was administered to 655 Yogo teachers working at elementary/junior high/senior high/special needs schools in Chiba Prefecture. The questionnaire asked if the respondents had encountered students with each of the ED types described in DSM-5 (anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), and other types of EDs (Others)), and the kinds of support they felt necessary to support these students. The encounter rates and the kinds of requested were obtained and compared, taking their confidence intervals into consideration.ResultsThe encounter rates for AN, BN, BED, ARFID, and Others were 48.4, 14.0, 8.4, 10.7, and 4.6 %, respectively. When classified by school type, AN, BN, BED, and ARFID had their highest encounter rates in senior high schools. Special needs schools had the highest rate for Others. The support most required for all ED types was “a list of medical/consultation institutions.”ConclusionsOur results have clarified how to support Yogo teachers in the early detection and support of ED students. We found that the encounter rate of AN was the highest, and that it is effective to offer “a list of medical/consultation institutions” to junior and senior high schools where the encounter rates for AN are high.
Highlights
Many studies have focused on the decreasing age of onset of eating disorders (EDs)
The objective of the present study was to gather fundamental data that would be effective in supporting Yogo teachers in their early detection and support of ED students
62.0 % were in their forties or older. 93.6 % lacked nursing experience, and 51.2 % had worked as a Yogo teacher
Summary
Many studies have focused on the decreasing age of onset of eating disorders (EDs). There are no studies that have surveyed the prevalence rates of ED children by ED type as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition (DSM-5), nor were we able to find any quantitative study surveying the kinds of support Yogo teachers feel helpful to support ED students. Among EDs, anorexia nervosa (AN) is usually accompanied by a sudden loss of weight, as well as other kinds of mental diseases and behavioral disorders, and it can be chronic and severe [5,6,7,8]. There have been many studies focusing on the lowering age of onset of EDs outside Japan [9,10,11,12,13]. Some have examined the prevalence rates of early onset EDs (EOEDs) in children aged from 5 to 13 [14], the prevalence rates by ED type in students aged 10 and up [15], lifelong prevalence rates and onset ages by ED type [16], and early signs of ED symptoms in nine-year-olds [17]
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