Spring babies face anorexia risk

[The Straight Story]

Spring babies face anorexia risk

Anorexia nervosa is more common among people born in the spring, a new study led by Oxford University scientists has found.

The researchers writing in the British Journal of Psychiatry say their study – which is the largest to date – provides ‘clear evidence’ of a season-of-birth effect in anorexia.

The research team, led by Dr Lahiru Handunnetthi of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University, compared the birth dates of 1,293 patients with anorexia to those of the general population.

They found an excess of anorexia births between March and June, and a deficit from September to October.

Although some previous studies have suggested a link between season of birth and eating disorders, these involved much smaller numbers of patients and did not reach statistical significance.

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-babies-anorexia.html