RISK BEHAVIOR EVALUATION FOR EATING DISORDERS AND BODY IMAGE DISORDERS IN UNIVERSITY STUDENTS

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the prevalence of risk behavior for eating disorders and body image disorders in college students of the UFPB Nutrition Course, as well as to describe the socioeconomic profile and general life habits of the students, checking the possible associations between these variables and to investigate the association between risk behaviors for eating disorders and body image disorders among college girls. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study. Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26) and Body Shape Questionnaire (BSQ) instruments were used. Data were analyzed using the SPSS program, adopting a significance level of 5% (p <0.05). Ninety-nine students participated in the study, with mean and standard deviation of age, height, weight and BMI being 21.5 years ± 4.53, 1.62 meters ± 0.69, 58.5 kg ± 11.7 and BMI 22, 1 kg / m² ± 4.01 respectively. Results: It was found that 27.3% of students were at risk of developing eating disorders and 76.8% of students had no dissatisfaction with body image in addition to the statistically significant statistically significant association with physical exercise (p=0.011), frequency (p=0.043), time (p=0.017) and modality (p=0.000) with the EAT. There was an association regarding dissatisfaction with body image related to the presence of eating attitudes at risk for the development of eating disorders (p = 0.009). Conclusion: The results of this study are very worrying. There is a large number of dissatisfaction with weight, evidencing the high prevalence of risk behavior for eating disorders and the presence of body image disorders.