Becker et al (2002) Contemporary Study Flashcards
Why study the research?
No previous attempts to evaluate the impact of introduction of TV on disordered eating in media niave populations
Why Fiji?
Fijian adolescent girls - a relatively media niave population in which disordered eating was thought to be rare
How many cases of reported anorexia had Fiji has by the mid 90s?
1
What are the traditional Fijian aesthetic ideals?
A preference for a robust body = little pressure to be slim
Fijian values discourage
individual efforts to reshape the body by dieting or exercise
Aim?
To asses the impact of novel, prolonged exposure to tv on disordered eating attitudes and behaviours among ethnic Fijian adolescent girls
The first wave occured in 1995 within a few weeks of the intro of tv in Naroga, the second wave occured in
1998 after the area had been exposed to tv for 3 years
Both qualitative and quantitative methods
were used to obtain data
The mean age was 17, written informed consent was obtained from the ___ ppts in 1995 and ___ ppts in 1998
63 and 65
A modified eating attitutes test was divised, contained 26 Qs, that included questions concerning
bingeing and purging behaviours
An EAT-26 score greater than 20 was considered to be
high, weight and height were also measured
Open ended, semi structured interviews were used to obtain
qualitative data
Narrative data from the 1998 sample were audiotaped transcribed and analysed for
thematic content and frequency of responses
The no. of EAT-26 scores greater than 20 were
8 in 1995 and 19 in 1998
Induced vomiting to control weight …
0 in 1995 and 7 in 1998
% of household ownerships of a tv
1995 - 41.3% and 1998 - 70.8%
By 1998 survery data indicated that dieting had become extremely prevalent among the study population, with
69% reporting that they had dieted to lose wieght at some previous time and 62% reporting that had dieted 4 weeks before the study
Of the participants interviewed, 83% responded that they felt tv had specifically influenced their
friends/themselves to feel differently about or change their body shape or weight
77% of ppts interviewed said that
tv influenced their own body image
The addition of qualitative data provides essential context for
understanding the connection between TV exposure and symptoms in this population
Ethics-
consent was obtained
Application
allows insight into development of eating disorders and suggest potential preventive strategies
Internal validity increased through semi structured interview as
further info could be gathered to check the understanding of the questionnaire responses, reduces subjectivity
Questionnaire did not require translation as all ppts wre fluent in English and words that were potentially unfamiliar were explained which
increases validity as there was little opportunity for the girls to misunderstand what questions were asking
Clinical diagnoses were not sought and disordered eating attitudes cannot be necessarly equated to the presence of an eating disorder, however
both high EAT-26 scores and induced vomiting are clinical signs that are associated with eating disorders
The absense of extremly low weight individuals in either sample may be explained by the
calorific density of the traditional fijian diet
Could have been unethical to talk about eating disorders as it is a
sensitive and personal subject
Self report data using questionnaires and interviwes is
open to social desirability bias as they may not have wanted to be honest
It is possible that participants in successive samples were not fully comparable however
both study populations were drawn fromt he same grade levels and schools were similar with respect to ethnicity , geder, age and BMI
We cannot rule out the fact that those who reported eating disorder symptoms in 1995 hadn’t had them
forever
