Too Thin for Health

Looking for Trouble Without their parents' knowledge, many adolescents with diagnosed eating disorders are visiting Web sites that encourage anorexia and bulimia, according to a study in Pediatrics this month.

"Parents of pro-eating-disorder Web site users were more likely to know about these sites" -- which provide "thinspiration" (images of extremely thin women) and reinforce disordered eating habits -- than other parents, said Rebecka Peebles, one of the study's authors and an instructor in adolescent medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. "Still, over half the parents of these pro-eating-disorder Web site users didn't know their own kids were on these sites."

Paying a Price Researchers surveyed 76 adolescents who were patients at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and whose eating disorders had been diagnosed between 1997 and 2004. They also surveyed 106 parents of adolescents with eating disorders. Most of the teens reported visiting pro-eating-disorder sites or pro-recovery sites, which provide support and encouragement for people recovering from eating disorders; some visited both types of sites.

But visiting pro-eating-disorder sites -- of which there are likely hundreds -- may harm patients' health and productivity, Peebles said. Users of such sites "reported spending less time on school or schoolwork and had a longer duration of illness," the study states. And about 96 percent of adolescents who visited such sites reported learning potentially harmful tips and techniques -- about laxatives, diet pills and supplements as well as suggestions for weight loss and purging.

Wising Up Most of the parents surveyed said they don't restrict the amount of time their kids spend online or the types of Web sites they visit -- "even though more than half knew [pro-eating-disorder] sites existed," Peebles said. She advised, "Parents need to be more Web-savvy [and] view the Internet as something that they should guide their kids through as they would guide their kids through other areas" of life.

-- January W. Payne