Prevalence of disadaptive eating behavior among sports university students

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies have proven the importance of studying the actual nutrition of student youth. However, the prevalence of maladaptive eating behavior (EB) among student-athletes and non-athletes remains unexplored. AIM: to assess the prevalence of maladaptive EB among students of a sports university. METHODS: a survey was conducted of 768 students of the Volga Region State University of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism using the Eating Behavior Assessment Scale (EBAS). Statistical analysis of the results was performed using SPSS Statistics v. 19.0 (IBM, USA). RESULTS: Оnly 41.11.8% of students of a sports university have no signs of maladaptive EB. The presence of deviations according to the subscales of EBAS was revealed in 72.94.5% of martial artists, 57.84.6% of athletes of complex coordination sports and 55.84.2% of cyclic sports, 55.03.2% of players and 59.43.7% of non-athletes. However, no statistically significant gender differences were found. Clinical symptoms of maladaptive EB were detected in 10.32.3% of non-athletes and 8.61.2% of athletes. At the same time, in student-athletes of individual sports, they were detected 1.7 times more often than in team sports (2=22.36; df=9; р=0.008). Psychological characteristics and stereotypes of behavior characteristic of people with maladaptive EB were found in 33.13.6% of non-athletes and 28.51.9% of student-athletes. CONCLUSION: Among the university sports students, there is a high prevalence of maladaptive EB among combat athletes. Whereas, among athletes, and female athletes of team sports, as well as young men and women who do not participate in sports, clinical symptoms of maladaptive EB have been relatively uncommon, however, psychological and behavioral stereotypes typical of persons with maladaptive EB are more often detected, which can be considered as a high predisposition to the development of such conditions.