Nearly one third of high school girls and 16 per cent of high school boys show symptoms of an eating disorder, US researchers announced on Thursday. These are the results of a recent survery, the first national screening of high school students for eating disorders. Dr. S. Bryn Austin of Children's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, presented her research team's findings at the annual meeting of The Society for Adolescent Medicine, held in San Diego, California. ``While full-blown eating disorders are more rare, very unhealthful eating behaviors are much more common,'' Austin told Reuters Health. The team of researchers evaluated 5,740 surveys out of 35,000 received from students from 152 high schools around the United States. The eating disorder screening surveys were designed to assess the eating habits and weight concerns of the students and asked them specific questions about binge-eating, vomiting, exercising and smoking, for example. ``The results (of the survey) indicate that a sizable minority of high school students have significant eating-disorder symptoms and have not received treatment,'' the researchers concluded.
