Assessment of eating behaviours and attitudes to eating, dieting and body image in pre-adolescent Swedish girls: a one-year follow-up.

Halvarsson K, Lunner K, Sjoden P-O. Assessment of eating behaviours and attitudes to eating, dieting and body image in pre-adolescent Swedish girls: a one-year follow-up. Acta Paediatr 2000; 89: 996-1000. Stockholm. ISSN 0803-5253 A 1-y follow-up of fifty 8-y-old Swedish girls was performed to assess changes in eating attitudes and dieting behaviour. Individual structured interviews using the Children's Eating Attitudes Test (ChEAT) and Body Image silhouettes were used. The question, Have you ever tried to lose weight'? was employed to discriminate dieters from non-dieters. Dieting behaviours according to the ChEAT increased over the follow-up period. Conclusion; Discrimination between dieters and non-dieters on the basis of a single question is highly unstable. A classification based on repeated assessment appears to be more promising.