METHODS: The setting was the University of Kuala Lumpur. Thirty-four Malay, 35 Chinese and 34 Indian normal pregnant middle-class women were studied longitudinally by monthly ultrasound scans for 18 to 38 weeks of gestation. The data were subjected to regression analysis; the quadratic curve was found to be the most adequate. Dummy variables were used to determine any effects by gender, parity as well as ethnicity on the length of limb growth. There was no difference in birth weights of the three ethnic groups studied, nor in gender or parity.

RESULTS: There were found to be significant differences in limb lengths of the Indians (longer) when compared with the Malays and Chinese. Parity seems to affect only Indians in whom the multiparous fetuses have shorter limb lengths than the primaparous. There appears to be no effect by gender.

METHOD: Potential references were identified through an English-language literature search using Medline, Psychinfo, Dissertation Abstracts (1966 to 1999) and through extensive manual searching of textbooks, reviews and reference lists.

RESULTS: The majority of studies related to EDs were conducted in Japan and China and a few were conducted in Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Korea whereas there was none in the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar, Indonesia and Thailand. Prevalence rates in Japan range from 0.025 to 0.030% for anorexia nervosa (AN) and from 1.9 to 2.9% for bulimia nervosa (BN). Community studies in China have found the AN prevalence to be 0.01% and BN rates ranging from 0.5% to 1.3%. These rates are lower than ED rates in the West (particularly the U.S. and Britain). Body dissatisfaction (BD) and dieting rates, however, were similar to those in the West. BD rates ranged from 68% (Taiwan) to 81% (Korea) and dieting rates ranged from 34% (Taiwan) to 68% (Japan). Sociocultural and developmental risk factors were relevant to this population.