Information about project titled 'Dieting and disordered eating among adolescent elite athletes and non-athlete controls'
Dieting and disordered eating among adolescent elite athletes and non-athlete controls
| Details about the project - category | Details about the project - value |
|---|---|
| Project status: | Published |
| Project manager: | Marianne Martinsen |
| Supervisor(s): | Jorunn Sundgot-Borgen |
| Coworker(s): | Solfrid Bratland-Sanda, Audun Eriksson |
Description
Little is known about the prevalence of eating disorder symptoms among adolescent elite athletes.
Aim
To examine the prevalence of dieting, reasons for dieting and prevalence of disordered eating among adolescent elite athletes and age-matched controls, and to examine the differences between athletes competing in leanness and non-leanness sports.
Methods
First-year students of 16 different Norwegian Elite Sport High Schools (athlete group, n=682) and two randomly selected ordinary high schools from a county representative of the general Norwegian population (control group, n=423) were invited to participate in this cross-sectional study.
A total of 606 athletes and 355 controls completed the questionnaire, giving a response rate of 89% and 84%, respectively. The questionnaire contained questions regarding training patterns, menstrual status and history, dieting, use of pathogenic weight control methods and the drive for thinness (DT) and body dissatisfaction (BD) subscales from the Eating Disorders Inventory.
Results
A higher prevalence of control subjects were dieting and classified with disordered eating compared with the athletes. An improvement of appearance was a more common reason for dieting among controls compared with athletes. No differences in dieting or disordered eating were found between leanness and non-leanness sports athletes.
The most frequent reason for dieting among girl and boy controls and girl athletes was to improve appearance, whereas boy athletes most often reported enhanced performance as a reason for dieting.
Conclusions
Self-reported disordered eating is more prevalent among controls than adolescent elite athletes, and losing weight to enhance performance is an important reason for dieting among adolescent elite athletes.