Answer To: Task Choose one topic from the list of social research topics (provided in week one). Read the topic...
Olivia answered on Apr 16 2021
Running Head: EATING DISORDERS IN YOUNG AUSTRALIANS 1
EATING DISORDERS IN YOUNG AUSTRALIANS 14
CAUSES OF EATING DISORDERS IN YOUNG AUSTRALIANS
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Background 4
Eating disorders in Australia 4
Variation by population groups 5
How common are eating disorders? 5
Co morbidities associated with Eating Disorders 6
Mortality rates due to eating disorders 6
Research question 7
Causes of Eating disorders 7
Social determinants as the primary cause of Eating disorders 7
Psychological determinants as the primary cause of Eating disorders 8
Biological determinants as the primary cause of Eating disorders 9
The relationship of obesity with eating disorders 9
Existing gaps in management 10
Discussion and Conclusion 11
References 12
Introduction
The way a person looks to other people although might be a superficial way to judge someone solely by the appearance, yet body image is one of the greater concerns of young people in Australia. Rates ad one of the top concerns by the experts in the field, the change in body shape, hitting puberty and growth of unwanted hair of body parts continues to be on the minds of teenagers not only in Australia but also all over the world. These changes when coupled with peer pressure, low self-esteem, physiological changes and increasing negative thoughts about a person’s image and self worth are the primary causes of eating disorders among the young Australians today. Eating disorders are a type of eating habits that are unhealthy and lead to many metabolic concerns. Although every human faces the problem of disordered or unhealthy eating from time to time, the major concern for the doctors and nutritionists is that for some people these disorders tend to be persistent for a very long time. About 16% of people in Australia tend to suffer from eating disorders. Among the four major types of eating disorders, the most commonly found subset is the binge eating disorder and other specified feeding and eating disorders that make up about 6% and 5% of the total number of cases in Australia. While anorexia nervosa is prevalent in about 1% of all cases, bulimia nervosa is even less at about 0.8% in all cases among the young people in Australia. Further research into the topic suggests that the young people are more susceptible to the changes in eating habits than elder population. The females between the age group 17 to 34 were the most vulnerable among the population having nearly about 57% of hospitalizations every year. This figure has been staggering and has raised alarm bells among the physicians and nutritionists. This report primarily focuses on the causes of eating disorders among young Australians and the existing prevention and management care that are available to them. The report also aims to identify the gaps present in management and in the existing statistics and hopes to provide a further direction for future studies.
Background
Eating disorders in Australia
Eating disorders are characterized by a subset of problems that are metabolic and include improper eating habits, fasting, or overeating (Treasure et al., 2010). These can lead to other associated metabolic diseases such as diabetes and ulcer. There are 4 types of frequently recognized eating disorders that are commonly found among the young people in Australia. These include anorexia nervosa, which is characterized by the persistent limit of food and water intake and intense fear of gaining weight and disturbance in self-perceived weight or body shape (Simon, Schmidt, & Pilling, 2005). Next is bulimia nervosa, which is characterized by repeated binge-eating episodes followed by compensatory behaviors like self-induced vomiting or laxative misuse. Binge eating disorder is also common. These are characterized by recurring episodes of binge eating, often with a sense of loss of control while eating (Smink, Van Hoeken, & Hoek, 2012). Other specified feeding or eating disorders are also found among the youth of Australia. These are the people with a particular disorder present with many of the symptoms of bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa, or binge eating disorder, other than that there may not be any significant way to distinguish one from the other as these symptoms are highly correlated (Fairweather Schmidt & Wade 2014).
Variation by population groups
Young women are more susceptible to the changes in eating disorder although they can happen at any stage of life (Hay et al. 2008; Hay et al. 2017; Wade et al. 2006). The Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing predicted that, in the year 2012–13, almost 2.4% young people aged between 11 to 17 years has problems relating to eating disorders (Lawrence et al. 2015). In studies, almost 3.5% of females have a higher tendency of eating disorders than in men, which is about 1.4% (Lawrence et al. 2015). In the year 2015–16, 95% of Australian hospitalizations with a principal diagnosis of an eating disorder were for females. Females aged 15–24 made up the principal share of these hospitalizations (57%). In 2015–16, around 28% of females and girls between the ages 15 to 24 years were diagnosed with eating disorders by community mental health care contacts. The next largest proportions of those contacts (14%) were provided to girls aged less than 15 years.
How common are eating disorders?
It is easier said than done to get an agreement on occurrence estimate for eating disorders in Australia (NEDC 2010). The data about prevalence and the estimates have large discrepancies between them due to the different diagnostic measures and facilities that are available in different parts of Australia (Hay et al., 2015). The statistics for any metabolic disorders vary, as it is mainly dependent on a large number of interlinked parameters that are both narrow and broad scaled. Estimated prevalence is 4–16% for Australians aged 15 and over (Hay et al. 2008; Hay et al. 2015; Wade et al. 2006). The estimates about their occurrences vary depending on many factors and measurements. Researches establish that binge eating disorders and nanorexia are some of the most common eating disorders among the vast majority of population in Australia. (Hay et al. 2017; Wade et al. 2006).
Co morbidities associated with Eating Disorders
Since most of these clinical conditions like eating disorders are characterized by psychological influences, it is obvious that the impacts of eating disorders would...