Anorexia: Prevalence and Educational Interventions

Anorexia: Prevalence and Educational Interventions
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People who experience extreme weight loss due to less intake of food gives various health risk factors in life. Even when people try to eat too much because of their appetite or ambition to increase their weight, along with excessive exercise, would have an opposite effect if too much. That is why exerting too much unhealthy behavior and attitude could lead to unhealthy lifestyles and disorders, such as eating disorders. This paper aims to explore the prevalence of Anorexia Nervosa and possible prevention and interventions.
Classification and Prevalence
Anorexia Nervosa (AN) is classified under Eating Disorders (ED) where it refers to a severely damaged habit of eating food in daily life. It is presented that this occurrence begins at the early age of adolescence and women are mostly the subject of this disorder, about ten times compared to men (Section D, 2015). This claim is also supported by the American Psychiatric Association (2013) where they explained the classification and prevalence of anorexia nervosa. To elaborate, they presented that adolescents or young adulthood are the common targets of the subject population of this disorder. They also handed diagnostic criteria that serve as references for diagnosis and these are three; (1) less intake of energy which caused having extremely low weight, (2) strong ear towards the ideal of being fat or increasing weight, and (3) continuous ignorance on how seriously low their body weight is.
Concerning this, Obeid et al. (2020) disclosed that even adults are experiencing eating disorders especially those who are places in countries that produce high incomes. They elaborated that in Canada, there are 5.5 million women and 2 million men were suffering under these struggles. An increase in mortality rates was also connected with eating disorders, specifically anorexia nervosa being one of the most primary sources of risk having that majority of them were male. On the other hand, the website titled Section D (2015) supported the claim of mortality as it explained that 20% to 30% of the people experiencing this struggle were drawn towards suicide. Other than that, it also presented statistical data for the prevalence of anorexia nervosa in Canada. It showed that the rate for people who are diagnosed with anorexia disorder was about 0.3% to 1% while young women were more diagnosed with this eating disorder as studies found that the rate was 0.04% while for men, it was zero percent.
Risk Factors
An individual's perception of life has several domains where these domains should function well to have a productive self. In the case of Sy et al. (2013), they explained that people are composed of physical, psychological, social, and cognitive domains which creates the Quality of Life (QOL). With consideration towards this, they also elaborated that they found out that patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa have less favorability of producing self-care and making social contact. They also compared that the quality of life of patients with schizophrenia, panic disorder, or depression is more than those who have anorexia nervosa.
Machado et al. (2014) founded that shape and weight of the parents' matters in a family for it to be served as one of the possible risk factors. They also elaborated how people prefer perfect body shapes and low weights which causes people to choose an unhealthy diet to lose weight. This thinking also refers to a psychological and social imperfection that affects one’s self. They explained that the central cause of these struggles is the concept of perfectionism in society. This idea serves as a specific risk towards anorexia nervosa as people view more favorably those who are considered perfect which affects the mentality of the people that drives them of these extreme actions.
In concern to this, the study of Lazarević et al. (2016) supports the same direction of this claim as they pointed out that insecurity is one risk factor of anorexia nervosa. They explained that female students who prioritize more on exhibiting perfection due to insecurities tend to accommodate themselves towards the path of unhealthy behaviors such as negative eating behaviors and attitudes. To add, Costa-Font & Jofre-Bonet (2013) identified that environmental factors are also a risk that affects the thinking of people. This creates the idea of people being influenced by the thinking of insecurities and perfectionism as they are influenced by their peers.
For further information, Achamrah et al. (2016) found in their study that the physical activities of people with anorexia are limited due to the possible opposite effect of it on the situation. They also emphasized the limitation especially to those who have extremely low body mass index to avoid severe side effects. On the other hand, for some who experience these struggles when there is no available program, it is encouraged to accommodate a small amount of exercise to support weight gain. On the other hand, Thornton et al. (2016) presented that the most high-risk factor that anorexia nervosa creates towards their patient is mental instability or the action of taking the life of their own. As they also explained that other psychiatric disorders follow through as well in this subject, they emphasized that the heightened rate of suicides among those who are diagnosed with anorexia nervosa.
Academic Impact
People diagnosed with the disorder faces various impacts in their life, especially adolescent as they are the most vulnerable. In the study of Sarrar et al. (2011), they explained that patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa had lower cognitive flexibility compared to the other group that is composed of young female adolescents who are not at risk of anorexia nervosa. Although having explained that there is an increase in cognitive flexibility of the patients after weight gain, the control group of healthy female adolescents were still higher despite the changes. This implies how anorexia nervosa greatly impacts the cognitive ability of the patients which in turn affects their academic performance.
On the other hand, Weider et al. (2013) also disclosed cognitive areas that were negatively affected by the disorder causing the same negative effect on the academic performance. They elaborated patients diagnosed with this disorder performed negatively causing low scores during the several areas prepared by the researchers. To be specific, they have presented that these patients were relatively experiencing difficulties in the areas of processing speed and working memory. These inefficiencies in some areas cause less academic performance of the patients since their cognitive ability of processing has been slowed down and their ability to identify and learn information is functioning less than those of who are healthy.
While UATHOR (2011) also claimed that patients diagnosed with anorexia nervosa were having deficiencies in processing speed and complementing it as a common effect of the disorder towards its subject. They also expl...