Body composition as indicator of eating disorders in female students

Abstract

Introduction. The transition to university education as a stressful period and the need to be likeable where physical appearance is concerned can be a trigger for a change in attitudes towards eating patterns. Body com-position is an essential component of nutritional status and the most common parameter used as an indicator of physical appearance. An unobtrusive onset of eating disorder can easily lead to a preoccupation with eating and body weight. The aim of the paper is to determine whether the parameters of body composition can qua-litatively detect respondents with eating disorders. Methods. The epidemiological observational and analytical study included a representative sample comprised of 408 healthy female students, aged 19-22 years. A short socio-demographic questionnaire, a standardized questionnaire for assessment of eating disorders- Eating Attitudes Test-26 were used in the study while Omron BF 510 was used for anthropometric measurements of body weight and BMI. Results. The sample consisted of female students: aged- mean = 20.5 years, with average height 168.65 cm (SD = 6.01), body weight 63.09 kg (SD = 9.9) and BMI 22.1 (SD = 3.2). According to EAT-26 (Mean = 13.24 and SD = 7.97), 16.7% of respondents with risk factors for eating disorders were detected. Conclusion. The maximum value of the Youden index of 0.24 ROC analysis confirms that the body composi-tion parameters are not reliable indicators of eating disorders and EAT-26 is not reliable and acceptable as an independent test for assessing risk factors by means of considering different attitudes and deviant eating be-haviors. Therefore, in order to achieve detection, monitoring, and perform preventive action, it is necessary to conduct regular systematic examinations among the student population.

Keywords

• eating disorder
• body composition
• female students