Prevalence of Eating Disorders among Elite Female Athletes in Aquatic Sports

Angeliki Douka1, Emmanouel Skordilis1, Dimitra Koutsouki1, & Yannis Theodorakis2

1Laboratory of Adapted Physical Activity/ Developmental and Physical Disorders, Department of Physical

Education and Sport Science, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Hellas

2Laboratory of Exercise Psychology and Quality of Life, Department of Physical Education and Sports Science, University of Thessaly, Trikala, Hellas

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to detect the prevalence of eating disorders (ED) in a sample of 76 national team female athletes in aquatic sports. The athletes were classified according to their sport involvement into swimming, water polo, and synchronized swimming. The participants responded to the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-13) while their Body Mass Index (BMI) was also measured. The EAT-13 incorporates 13 state- ments under the following three subscales: Dieting, Food Preoccupation and Important Others. The re- sponses are provided in a 4-point Likert scale. The total score ranges from 0 to 39 and respondents who score at or higher of the cut off score 12, have the tendency to exhibit ED. The results revealed that athletes with the tendency to exhibit ED, had lower BMI scores compared to those without the tendency for ED (t = -2.23, p = .02). Further more, athletes differed significantly according to their sport (F = 5.398, p = .007). A post hoc discriminant function analysis revealed that Food Preoccupation and Important Others significantly sepa- rated the three groups of athletes. More specifically, synchronized swimmers had significantly higher scores, in both subscales, compared to swimmers and water polo players. Overall, it appears that synchronized swimming, which emphasizes leanness, low body weight and figure from the early adolescence years, is as- sociated with a higher tendency to exhibit ED, when compared to other aquatic sports.

Keywords: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-13), swimming, water polo, synchronized swimming, Body Mass Index