One in five Dublin schoolgirls smoke to lose weight

Almost one in five Dublin schoolgirls try to lose weight by smoking, according to a study published yesterday. The study found "fatness phobia" is widespread among teenage girls. Half those surveyed skipped meals to lose weight and one in six induced vomiting.

The survey of 420 girls aged 14 to 17 was carried out in five Dublin schools by two nutritionists from the Dublin Institute of Technology, Ms Yvonne Ryan and Dr Mary Flynn, in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin and the Eastern Health Board.

Ms Ryan said the results highlighted the "huge need" for proper nutritional education in schools. Seventy per cent of those surveyed said they had tried to lose weight, even though almost a third of these perceived themselves as being normal or underweight.

Four out of five tried to slim by avoiding sugary foods, exercising or dieting. Fifty-two per cent skipped meals; 19 per cent smoked; 15 per cent induced vomiting; five per cent took laxatives or fasted and 4 per cent took diet pills.

Dr Flynn said of all the slimming practices tried, only exercise was appropriate for teenage girls. Adolescents had high nutritional needs, yet teenage magazines portrayed ultra-thin "as the epitome of female beauty".

Dr Flynn said a recent study of female models in magazines calculated the models' body sizes and found they were up to 19 per cent underweight. A body weight of 15 per cent below the norm was a main anorexia symptom.

But the media were not entirely to blame. Studies showed even among primary school-children there was evidence fatness was stigmatised. Surveys in 1993 and 1995 also showed overweight women were significantly less likely to marry, earned less money and spent less time in third-level education. Overweight men were not stigmatised to the same degree.

"It makes you ask where the women's movement has been," she said. The problem was something which society, and not simply the media, had created. The study is published in the May issue of the International Journal of Obesity.