Journal article
The role of gendered constructions of eating disorders in delayed help-seeking in men: a qualitative interview study
- Abstract:
- OBJECTIVES: To understand how young men recognise eating disorder (ED) symptoms and decide to seek help, and to examine their experiences of initial contacts with primary care. DESIGN: A qualitative interview study. SETTING: Men from across the UK were interviewed as part of a study of 39 young men's and women's experiences of having an ED. PARTICIPANTS: 10 men aged 16-25 years with various EDs including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. RESULTS: The widespread perception of EDs as uniquely or predominantly a female problem led to an initial failure by young men to recognise their behaviours as symptoms of an ED. Many presented late in their illness trajectory when ED behaviours and symptoms were entrenched, and some felt that opportunities to recognise their illness had been missed because of others' lack of awareness of EDs in men. In addition, the men discussed the lack of gender-appropriate information and resources for men with EDs as an additional impediment to making sense of their experiences, and some felt that health and other professionals had been slow to recognise their symptoms because they were men. CONCLUSIONS: Although increasingly common in young men, widespread cultural constructions of EDs as a 'women's illness' mean that men may fail to recognise ED symptoms until disordered behaviours become entrenched and less tractable to intervention. Men also report that such perceptions can affect the reactions of their families and friends, as well as health and educational professionals. Primary care professionals are well placed to challenge inappropriate perceptions of EDs.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 695.7KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1136/bmjopen-2013-004342
Authors
- Publisher:
- BMJ Publishing Group
- Journal:
- BMJ Open More from this journal
- Publication date:
- 2014-04-08
- Acceptance date:
- 2014-02-13
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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2044-6055
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:462290
- UUID:
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uuid:eef2d742-b481-48de-82df-14d6d1c122e0
- Local pid:
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pubs:462290
- Source identifiers:
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462290
- Deposit date:
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2014-06-17
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Räisänen and Hunt
- Copyright date:
- 2014
- Notes:
- © 2014 Räisänen and Hunt. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license.
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