Epidemiology of eating disorders, part I: introduction to the series and a historical panorama

Abstract

The present article is the first of three about the epidemiology of eating disorders. This first introductory article provides an outline of basic epidemiological issues, approaches and concepts and a historical panorama of epidemiology within the field of eating disorders. The second article in this series will present an updated review while the third one will focus on the nature and prevalence of comorbidities and possible implications for epidemiological research. Moreover, the third paper will discuss the potentials for social epidemiology. Does epidemiological research provide the necessary and sufficient knowledge to initiate universal, indicative or selective prevention strategies? How may a possible diversified clinical picture affect such a potential?

Keywords:

• eating disorders
• epidemiology
• history
• review

Notes

1. The Greek prefix ‘epi’ (on or upon) and ‘demos’ (the people) form the word ‘epidemios’ (among people). Adding ‘logos’ (the study of) leads to ‘epidemiology’ translated to mean ‘the knowledge about how diseases are distributed in a population’.