Treatment Related to the Symptoms of the Eating Disorders - Paper Example

In this paper, the main objective is to examine the prevalence, correlates, persistence, and treatment related to the symptoms of the eating disorders in a random sample of the college students. The random sample was done among the students in a large Midwestern university, and their consent was sought through an email process. After they would have read the consent form, the participants was to indicate consent by clicking to begin the survey. A survey was done in 2005 semester with a follow up done in 2007.The sample of the study was selected through a random sampling procedure where 5021 samples were selected. Among the participants, 2495 were undergraduate students while 2526 were graduate students. The response was taken and recorded in a table format. These information can be very important for the decision-making process in the health sector and improve the lives of the students in case an intervention is done to correct any anomalies caused by eating disorder.

From the study which was done by Daniel Eisenberg, the information regarding the potential correlates of the eating disorder was collected for analysis. During the measurement process, the factors such as the demographic characteristics such as ethnicity, race, age, academic level, health behavior and measures of mental health were put into consideration. Besides, the symptoms of the depression were also measured by the use of the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).In this case, the PHQ-9's standards were used to categorize people as screening positive for major depression. The consistency was also high as depicted by the Cronbachs alpha which is equal to the 0.84 value. On the other hand, the symptoms of the EDs were made by the use of the US written version of the SCOFF screening instruments. In relation to the help seeking process, the participants were asked about their perception of the need for them to utilize the mental health services. These were done, developed and validated by the use of the national healthcare for communities study to ensure a high level of consistency and relevance of the study.

During the analysis of data, the STATA 9.2 was used in the process to aid in the analysis of data for the interpretation process. For the baseline samples, the sample has constructed these weights to adjust for the survey nonresponse. Besides, when the assessment of the independent associations between the EDs symptoms and potential correlates was done, the estimated multivariate logistic regression models and the evaluation of the significance of the coefficient were done by the use of the two tailed t-tests. On the event where the mail was sent to the students, only 2822 students both undergraduate and graduate did participate and accomplished the baseline survey process to facilitate the study progression. Among the undergraduate students, the prevalence which showed positive screens totaled to 3.6% for males and 13.5% for females. Besides, among the students who were found to be having the positive screens, 20% of them had received a past year mental health treatments. Also, in the follow-up activity which was done in 2007 and involved a sample of 753 students (n=753), the ED symptoms at baseline did significantly predict the symptoms in the next two years. However, in the follow-up study, 1272 were enrolled in the study, but only 753 confirmed their consent. In the situation where the independent correlates of a positive ED screen and uses multivariable logistic regression. There was a positive significance of p < 0.05 which correlates. These comprise of the major depressions among the females. These can be shown by the odds ratio = 2.91; 95% and a CIOF 95%. Besides, the panic disorder among the males was also determined. Besides, the financial struggles were also positively tested to be associated with the ED symptoms even though the results were not significant at a p value of 0.05. Besides, the Students with positive screens for EDs were likely since they had a p value of (p<0.01) as compared to those with negative screens to have perceived need for help with mental or emotional health and to have used services. In the situation where the follow-up sample was taken into consideration, the positive screen of the EDs at the baseline was associated with a positive screen two years later.

From the analysis, the point of focus was to create an avenue for a proper understanding of the extent to which the EDs affects the college population and other factors which influence the decisions made by the students to aid them in managing or controlling the eating concerns. Besides, to understand the lack of treatment seeking, there is a need for the disentanglement of the roles of the potential explanations which comprise of the availability of the services, denial illness, and lack of motivation for recovery which is inherent in the EDs. Therefore, from the results, analysis, and presentations, it can thus be concluded that the symptoms of the EDs were prevalent and had been proved to be persistent among the college students with untreated EDs.