The incidence of eating disorders in Spain is increasing at such a rate that the minister of health, José Manuel Romay-Beccaria, has set up a multidisciplinary working party to investigate the problem.
Current estimates are that the incidence of anorexia is increasing by 15%per year. The main opposition socialist party, the Partido Socialista Obrero Español, has put forward two propositions to parliament to try to tackle the problem.
It wants the government to introduce new regulations obliging dress designers and manufacturers to make women’s clothes in larger sizes than those currently available in shops, and it would like the government to start a dialogue with advertisers and marketing companies to persuade them to use models who are “in harmony with social reality,” rather than exceptionally thin.
The health minister’s working party, which will have its first meeting within a few weeks, is made up of psychiatrists, paediatricians, and representatives of consumer and patient organisations and the fashion industry.
According to the Ministry of Health, eating disorders have become a complex “emerging health problem” with multiple causes. It is therefore adopting a strategy to take action in the fields of health, education, advertising, and marketing.
The preliminary results of an epidemiological study started last year indicate that about 100000 Spaniards between the ages of 14 and 24 (between 0.5%and 2%of this age group) either have anorexia nervosa or bulimia, or both, or are at high risk of developing these disorders.
Figure.
Fashion industry will be represented on anorexia working party