Survey on dysfunctional eating behavior in adult persons with intellectual disability living in the community

Prevalence of dysfunctional eating behavior was investigated in 311 adult persons with mental retardation living in the West Coast of Norway. Reports from a questionnaire filled out by health workers were used as observational data. The main finding was that 64.3% of the clients showed indices of dysfunctional eating behavior. The five most frequent dysfunctional behaviors was eating to fast (27.7%) followed by bolting one's food (25.1%), refusal of food (19.9%), excessive eating (18.3%) and non co-operative during mealtime (17.0%). In 50% of the cases, one or more eating dysfunction was present every day and the intensity of the behavior was regarded as high or very high in 26.2% of the cases. It is suggested that more studies are needed to single out treatment approaches to eating dysfunction's in adult persons as has been done on food refusal in children.