The school a girl attends can affect her chance of being diagnosed with an eating disorder, according to new research.

Researchers from Oxford University, University College London, Bristol University, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, used data from Sweden.

The study found that girls attending schools with higher proportions of female students, and high proportions of university-educated parents, were more likely to be diagnosed with an eating disorder than girls at schools with lower proportions of female students and fewer university-educated parents.

Dr Helen Bould, child and adolescent psychiatrist at Oxford University Department of Psychiatry, led the research. 

She said: "Eating disorders have an enormous effect on the lives of young people who suffer from them – it is important to understand the risk factors so that we can address them. 

"For a long time clinicians in the field have noted that they seem to see more young people with eating disorders from some schools than others, but this is the first empirical evidence that this is the case."

Eating disorders, including anorexia and binge eating disorder bulimia, affect 5.7 per cent of adolescent girls.