A Study on Eating Disorder, Depression and Body Dissatisfaction of Middle Aged Women

Choi, Myung Sook

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between eating disorders, depression, and body dissatisfaction of middle aged women. Data was collected from June 1 to June 30, 1999 by means of a structured uestionnaire. The subjects for this study were 99 middle aged women between the ages of 35 and 59, recruited from Seoul, Kyungido. The instruments were the BDI(Beck Depression Inventory) developed by Beck(1973), Eating Disorder Inventory(1997) developed by Garner & Garfinkel, Halm, Falk& Schwartz, Shin Mi Young. The instruments were the Body Dissatisfaction(1997) developed by Garner, Olstead & Polivy, Han osoo, yoo hee jung, shin Mi Young. The data was analyzed by the SPSS/PC program using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient.The results of this study are as follows 1. The mean body weight and height of the subjects were 57.49kg, 158.62cm.2. Depending upon BMI, the obesity subjects were 18.2% and the rest(81.8%) were under weight or normal. More than 70% of the normal weight subjects(71 subjects) perceived their weight as overweight.3. The total mean scores of anorexia nervosa were higher than bulimia nervosa. The total mean scores of eating disorders was 2.13.4. The total mean scores of depression was 1.50.5. The total mean scores of body dissatisfaction was 3.30. 6. There was a positive correlation between depression and eating disorders(r= .267, p<0.01)and, between body dissatisfaction and eating disorders(r=.273, p<0.01).There was not a significant correlation between depression and body dissatisfaction.According to the present study eating disorders in middle aged women developed because of the tendency to have negative perceptions of their bodies.