Binge Eating and Weight Concerns among Young Adults

Abstract

In the longitudinal cohort study of young adults from the Canton of Zurich in Switzerland, two groups of eating problems were defined: binge eating and weight concerns. Subjects with these conditions were interviewed at the ages of 27–28 and 29–30 years. The binge eaters, mostly women, differed both from subjects with weight concerns and from controls. They had more severe eating problems and more anxiety and depression. Follow-up as well as retrospective data suggest that eating problems are persistent for the binge eaters, and, to a lesser extent, also for subjects with weight concerns. Even so, professional treatment is rarely sought by subjects with eating problems. These findings encourage long-term studies on eating problems in community samples.