One in 10 girls once took a diet pill: study

A recent study found that one in 10 girls have taken diet pills for weight loss at least once in their lives. Good morning America mentionted.

The study was carried out by the School of Public and Preventive Health at Monash University in Melbourne and published in Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Researchers conducted more than 90 studies involving more than 600,000 participants aged 18 and under from around the world. Participants were mainly from North America, the United Kingdom, Europe, the Caribbean and Asia.

The study found that girls were more likely to take diet pills and their use was most common in North America, followed by Asia and Europe.

“Childhood use of over-the-counter weight loss products has been associated with low self-esteem, depression, poor diet, and substance use,” the journal reports.

According to the study, diet pills were the most commonly used weight loss product by teenagers, followed by laxatives and diuretics.

Previous research has shown that the use of diet pills is highly correlated with the development of eating disorders.

According to a study by the American Public Health Association, the use of diet pills and laxatives is associated with a higher risk of an eating disorder within one to three years compared to non-users in the US.

A study conducted last year by JAMA network on eating disorders estimated that 22% of children and adolescents had an eating disorder. The study included 63,000 participants from 16 countries.

Director of external affairs at eating disorder charity Beat, Tom Quinn, said: “There should be stricter laws to ensure that weight loss products are never sold to people with or vulnerable to an eating disorder.”