There's a general perception that eating disorders
like anorexia primarily affect white girls. "When you read, in the media
for example, about eating disorders, invariably they are portrayed as problems
of white women," says Ruth
Striegel-Moore, a psychology professor at Wesleyan University.
As shown on PBS's
NOVA, 8 million people in America, mostly young women, suffer from anorexia,
or self-starvation. But does it equally affect all races? "There aren’t
a lot of large, systematic studies that have looked at that question,"
says Striegel-Moore, who recently published a study looking at the race and
anorexia in the American
Journal of Psychiatry.
So Striegel-Moore and her team surveyed 2,046 young black and white women with
an average age of 21, and found that black women were less likely to get certain
eating disorders—especially anorexia. "We found no case of a black young
woman with anorexia nervosa in this study," says Striegel-Moore. "We’re
not looking at risk factors for anorexia nervosa in this study, but what may
be going on is that black women are…under less pressure to be super
thin. In fact, there’s quite a bit of research that shows that black
women prefer to be moderately thin—they don’t want to be skinny-thin—whereas
white women…you can never be thin enough, so to speak, as a body ideal.
So as a culture, black culture may have protective factors, so that even if
a black woman may have the genetic
vulnerability to anorexia nervosa, it may not get expressed because she
grows up in a context that may be protective."
image: Levi Strauss & Co.
There were four cases of bulimia among the black women,
compared to 23 among the white women, and 15 cases of binge eating disorder
among the black women, compared to 27 among the white women. "If we had
studied an older group of black and white women, the differences might not
have been as extreme," Striegel-Moore points out. "Typically, the
age of onset is later for black women than white women. It’s an important
caveat of the study when we look at the differences between bulimia nervosa
and binge eating disorder between the two ethnic groups."
The team also found that black girls are less likely to seek treatment when
they do get an eating disorder. "For the white women, about 30 percent
reported that they had, in the past, received treatment for their eating disorders,"
says Striegel-Moore. "And only one of the black women altogether had
received treatment for the eating disorder."
The reason for this difference may come back to perception. "Because
eating disorders are so identified as being problems of white women, both
the women with the disorder and the service providers may not think of these
as problems of black women," explains Striegel-Moore. "So the physician
may not ask about it, and the woman herself may not think about it as an eating
disorder or as a problem for which you go and seek help. The different treatment
rates are very important because regardless of your ethnic background, if
you have an eating disorder, it’s a very serious mental and physical
health problem, and there are effective treatments available for these disorders."
Scientists are now doing similar studies with other ethnic groups to better
understand how they are affected by eating disorders like anorexia. "It’s
very clear that ethnic minority groups do develop eating disorders,"
says Striegel-Moore. "Perhaps not at the same rates as white women, we
don’t know that fully, but they do exist. It’s very important
that we understand what the problems are for those groups."
The team also found that black girls are less likely to seek treatment when
they do get an eating disorder. "For the white women, about 30 percent
reported that they had, in the past, received treatment for their eating disorders,"
says Striegel-Moore. "And only one of the black women altogether had
received treatment for the eating disorder."
The reason for this difference may come back to perception. "Because
eating disorders are so identified as being problems of white women, both
the women with the disorder and the service providers may not think of these
as problems of black women," explains Striegel-Moore. "So the physician
may not ask about it, and the woman herself may not think about it as an eating
disorder or as a problem for which you go and seek help. The different treatment
rates are very important because regardless of your ethnic background, if
you have an eating disorder, it’s a very serious mental and physical
health problem, and there are effective treatments available for these disorders."
Scientists are now doing similar studies with other ethnic groups to better
understand how they are affected by eating disorders like anorexia. "It’s
very clear that ethnic minority groups do develop eating disorders,"
says Striegel-Moore. "Perhaps not at the same rates as white women, we
don’t know that fully, but they do exist. It’s very important
that we understand what the problems are for those groups."
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