62 pc older women say weight negatively impacts their lives

Washington, June 23 (ANI): A new survey has found that 70 percent of women over 50 are trying to lose weight and 62 percent say their weight or shape has a negative effect on their lives.

The study, released Friday in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, also found that 3.5 percent report binge eating at least once a week, and 7.5 percent reported using diet pills.

According to researchers from the University of North Carolina, little is known about the disordered eating behaviors among the 53 million U.S. women over age 50, and so they tried to find out.

"An unfortunate assumption is that they 'grow out of' body dissatisfaction and eating disorders, but no one has really bothered to ask," the LA Times quoted lead researcher Cynthia Bulik, director of the University of North Caolina Eating Disorders Program, as saying in a statement.

Using the online tool Surveymonkey, 1,849 women were questioned from September 2010 to January 2011 in an effort to assess the prevalence of current and past eating disorder symptoms, dieting, and weight and body image concerns.

While some of the women trying to lose weight may have been told to do so by their doctors, "excessive concern with dieting, weight, and body shape and overall body dissatisfaction can have negative consequences on women's self-esteem" and could increase their risk of eating disorders, the researchers wrote. (ANI)