Life course, sociocultural factors and disordered eating in adult Mexican women

Abstract

Disordered eating (DE) can appear in women of all ages and in diverse sociocultural contexts, however most research focuses on younger women in higher income countries. The purpose of this article was to explore the association of life course markers with DE, considering the effects of sociocultural factors, in a sample of adult women in Tijuana, Mexico. We employed data from a household survey (n = 2322) conducted in 2014, to evaluate the associations of DE with age, occupation, marital status and having children (life course markers), and indicators of social position and exposure to modernization (sociocultural factors). The prevalence of weight preoccupation was 69.2% (CI95% 67.3,71.1), the prevalence of dieting 24.8% (CI95% 22.4,27.3), and 2.0% (CI95% 1.4,3.0) had a probable eating disorder according to the questionnaire cutoff score. In the adjusted model, younger age, being employed, higher social position and indicators of exposure to modernization had positive associations with DE. There were interactions between marital status and body mass index, and between age and region of birth. The interaction terms showed that overweight was positively associated with DE among single and cohabiting participants, but not among the married ones; and that the negative association between DE and age was apparent from younger age groups in women born in less developed regions of Mexico. Our results replicate others in showing DE to be present in women through the life course, and point to at-risk groups in the confluences of life course, social position and modernization.