If you have an eating disorder you know that if you are in the middle of a binge or purge or running on the treadmill, you are not going to answer the phone. However, researchers continue to attempt to quanitfy prevalence of eating disorders, in this case, by phone.
The researchers conducted a phone survey of 1,500 urban women, most of them nonsmokers and university graduates. The average age was 31.
None of the women was classified as anorexic, and only 1 percent met the criteria for bulimia (bingeing and purging). However, almost 14 percent reported binge eating one to seven times per month, while nearly 3 percent occasionally used vomiting, laxatives, or diuretics for weight control.