Specific dietary practices in female athletes and their association with positive screening for disordered eating

Abstract

Background To determine if following specific diets was associated with reporting behaviors that are consistent with disordered eating compared to non-diet-adherent athletes. We hypothesized that athletes adhering to specific diets were more likely to report disordered eating than those not following a diet. Methods One thousand female athletes (15–30 years) completed a comprehensive survey about athletic health and wellness. Athletes were asked to specify their diet and completed 3 eating disorder screening tools: the Brief Eating Disorder in Athletes Questionnaire, the Eating Disorder Screen for Primary Care, and self-reported current or past history of eating disorder or disordered eating. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all study measures and chi-squared tests assessed relationships between athletes’ dietary practices and their responses to eating disorder screening tools. Statistical significance was defined as p < 0.05. Results Two hundred thirty-four of 1000 female athletes reported adherence to specific diets. 69 of the 234 diet-adhering athletes (29.5%) were excluded due to medically-indicated dietary practices or vague dietary descriptions. Of the 165 diet-adherent athletes, 113 (68.5%) screened positively to ≥1 of the 3 eating disorder screening tools. Specifically, athletes practicing a low-carbohydrate diet were more likely to report disordered eating vs. athletes without dietary restrictions (80% vs. 41.8%; p < 0.0001). Conclusion Specific diet adherence in female athletes may be associated with reporting behaviors that are consistent with disordered eating. Health practitioners should consider further questioning of athletes reporting specific diet adherence in order to enhance nutritional knowledge and help treat and prevent eating disorders or disordered eating.

Prevalence of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S) among National Athletes in Malaysia

“…Each sports nutritionist/dietitian is assigned to a few sports, allowing for more personalized nutrition and close monitoring. Similarly, in a previous study ( n = 1000) of high school and collegiate female athletes, about 23.4% of athletes reported following a specific diet [ 37 ]. In their study, athletes who followed a low-carbohydrate diet were more likely to report disordered eating than those without dietary restrictions.…”

A Proposed Conceptual Sport Nutrition Approach for Athlete Development and Assessment: The Athlete Nutrition Development Approach

“…Although psychological factors can be dependent on dietary intake, this relationship is often bidirectional with mental health being a determining factor in eating behaviours and resulting dietary intake [28,29]. Evidence suggests that female athletes may be especially prone to disordered eating and would benefit from screening [30], although disordered eating does also occur in males [29]. Therefore, it is important to assess mental health at early stages of development, and not just as a psychological consequence of dietary intake.…”

Perspectives on relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S): A qualitative case study of athletes, coaches and medical professionals from a super league netball club

“…When concerning the senior players, dieting and the intentions behind this became a key focus of discussions with restricted eating patterns being common [ 43 ]. Whilst these factors are important to consider, the restricted eating patterns were often unintentional and sometimes unavoidable.…”