While most of us tend to think that eating disorders are rare in males, a study has now revealed otherwise.
A study conducted by the Boston Children’s Hospital that included 5,527 teenage males from across the US have challenged this belief. Researchers there have found that 17.9 percent of adolescent boys were actually concerned about their weight and physique. These same boys were more likely to engage in risky behaviours that includes drug use and frequent binge drinking.
According to lead author Alison Field, ScD, from Boston Children’s Hospital’s Adolescent medicine Division, "males and females have very different concerns about their weight and appearance."
The evaluations made for eating disorders have been developed to reflect that girls are concerned about thinness but not boys who are more focused on masculinity rather than being thin.
In order to understand the symptoms of eating disorders that is linked to obesity, drug use and depression in males. Alison Field and her colleagues got responses from questionnaires as part of the study and teens had responded to surveys every 12 to 36 months from 1999 to 2010.
It was found that boys were more interested in masculinity and therefore would use unhealthy supplements and growth hormones and steroids to enhance their physique. They were also twice as likely to start binge drinking and could take up drugs more easily.
Boys who were concerned with thinness were likely to develop depressive symptoms.
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