Prevalence and predictors of Eating Disorders’ risk in medical students at Damascus University: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Eating disorders are among the most important psychiatric problems, and they are triggered by a complex network of factors. These disorders also seem to affect medical field students far more than others. Objective: To determine the point prevalence of the risk of disordered eating behaviors in medical students at Damascus University and to study the possible reasons for this risk. Methods: A cross-sectional study at Damascus University, Faculty of Medicine, was carried out between October and December of 2023. Data were collected from randomly sampled students from the second to sixth years via online surveys using the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26) and the Sick, Control, One, Fat, Food (SCOFF) questionnaires as primary screening tools. Binary logistic regression was used to determine possible influencing factors on eating disorders. Results: Among the 829 participants, 11.3% had a greater risk of disordered eating behavior according to the EAT-26, and 20.3% had a greater risk according to the SCOFF. The average age was 21.29 years (1.76), and 67.6% of the participants’ body mass index (BMI) was within the normal range. Preclinical-aged female students (OR=1.89, p=0.009 for SCOFF and OR=0.66, p=0.017 for SCOFF) were at greater risk. Another important correlation was found between BMI and exposure to recent stressors (p<0.001 in both comparisons). However, age did not demonstrate any traceable importance (p=0.17) in addition to living or marital status (p=0.13 and p=0.18, respectively). Conclusion: There is a risk of developing eating disorders among medical students, which might go unrecognized due to a lack of awareness of the importance of their detection. This risk also seems to stem from multiple risk factors that still require further research. Improving the relationship with psychological disorders and working on changing their rooted stigmatization will most likely prevent the escalation of these disorders in the future.