Dutch Researchers have found that young women who grow up in cities or move there from rural areas are more likely to suffer from bulimia. Bulimia is an eating disorder in which young women are trapped in a routine of over-eating and vomiting or purging.
The Dutch study has observed a startling correlation between cases of this disorder and the environment in which they live. Researchers found that whereas cases of anorexia, a starving disorder, appeared to occur at random, bulimia is more likely to be seen in urban environments.Bulimia, is thought to affect up to four per cent of the UK population. Princess Diana was known to suffer from this eating disorder. It is a known fact that she grew up in the country, and moved to London as a teenager.
The study found that while only 7 in every 100,000 women in rural areas suffered from the eating disorder, 16.7 were affected in urbanised areas and 25.5 in large cities.
The team of researchers, led by Hans Hoek, from the Groningen University Department of Psychiatry, arrived at this finding after studying 10 years of data from the late 1980s and late 1990s from general practitioners in the Netherlands.
Source-Medindia
PRI/ASH/L
