Indians suffer eating disorders

Doctors told to look for eating disorders

Boys, minorities can suffer problems as much as teen girlsIn a second study, she used a Web-based questionnaire to survey people who visit Web sites about eating disorders. Peebles found that American Indians and Alaskan Natives were much more likely than whites to use laxatives to control weight, and that almost 47 percent of people in these two groups had been hospitalized at least once as a result of eating disorders, compared with about 13 percent of whites.

American Indian and Alaskan Native respondents also reported a longer duration of disordered eating than other groups and had higher maximum lifetime weights and lower minimum lifetime weights, which suggests more dramatic swings in body weight, Peebles said.