Pro-eating disorder Web sites may feed the problem

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Parents of adolescents with eating disorders may want to check out the Internet sites their child is visiting. A study published this month in the journal Pediatrics confirms adolescents with eating disorders are frequent visitors of pro-eating disorder Web sites, which may promote dangerous behaviors.

"Pro-eating disorder Web sites are communities of individuals who engage in disordered eating and use the Internet to discuss their activities," warn Dr. Rebecka Peebles of the division of adolescent medicine at Stanford University, Mountain View, California and colleagues.

"Pro-recovery sties, which are less numerous, express a recovery-oriented perspective," they note.

The researchers surveyed families of patients diagnosed with an eating disorder at Stanford between 1997 and 2004. Seventy-six patients, between the ages of 10 and 22 at diagnosis, and 106 parents returned an anonymous survey asking about Internet use and health outcomes.

Forty-one percent of the patients surveyed said they had visited pro-recovery Web sites about eating disorders; 35.5 percent visited pro-eating disorder Web sites; 25.0 percent visited both; and 48.7 percent visited neither.

Ninety-six percent of teens who visited pro-eating disorder Web sites reported learning new dieting and purging techniques. These teens tended to have a longer duration of disease, spent less time on schoolwork and spent significantly more time online each week than did those who never visited these sites.

Even the pro-recovery sites aren't harmless, the authors point out, noting that nearly 50 percent of patients visiting such sites reported learning about new methods to lose weight or to purge.

The study also found that while 52.8 percent of parents were aware of the existence of pro-eating disorder Web sites, only 27.6 percent had discussed these sites with their child. And only about 20 percent of parents reported placing limits on either the time their child spent online or on the sites they visited.

This study -- a "preliminary foray into the world of pro-eating disorder Web sites" -- shows that adolescents with eating disorders frequent these Web sites -- often unbeknownst to their parents -- and that their use may lead some of them to adopt unhealthful dieting practices.

SOURCE: Pediatrics, December 2006.