Objective: The aim of this study was to examine the associations between psychosocial factors and family background and incidence of anorexia nervosa (AN) in a Swedish cohort.
Method: The Stockholm Birth Cohort, SBC (N = 14,294) contains information on social background and general health in males and females, born in Stockholm 1953. Hospitalizations for AN, based on diagnoses from the ICD-8 through ICD-10, were recorded from 1969 to 2002. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to measure the association between psychosocial characteristics and family background and the risk of AN.
Results: Higher maternal education was associated with a higher risk for hospitalization for AN. An increased risk for AN was also found among females who stated that they "often compare their future prospects with others."
Discussion: Although the study is based on a low number of cases, it confirms earlier findings of higher maternal education among individuals with eating disorders in similar cohorts.
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