[Eating behaviors, attitudes and obsessive-compulsive traits in adolescents of Buenos Aires City]. / Actitudes, conductas alimentarias y rasgos obsesivo-compulsivos en adolescentes de la ciudad de Buenos Aires.

OBJECTIVE: Eating disorders are psychiatric illnesses of important prevalence in Argentina. Some typical characteristics of adolescence, such as body image fragility, media influence and social pressure lead partly into the development of eating disorders at that age. The objective of our study was to explore the eating behaviors, attitudes and obsessive-compulsive traits of the adolescents of Buenos Aires City. METHODS: A questionnaire survey was administered to 380 students of 5 Buenos Aires high schools (mean age:16,8 years old) and their answers were analyzed. RESULTS: Almost 50% of the adolescents were not satisfied with their weight, 43% of them has been on a diet at least once (the majority because of aesthetic reasons). A percentage of 23,5 had bulimic behaviors, 34,5% had a high number of obsessive-compulsive traits. Women were significantly more dissatisfied with their weight, had been on more diets and had more bulimic behaviors and obsessive-compulsive traits. CONCLUSIONS: Weight dissatisfaction and bulimic behaviors are frequent in adolescents of Buenos Aires City, specially among women. Preventive measures against eating disorders should be done on this population.