Consumption of dietary substances and their association with risk of eating disorders in college students

Abstract

Objective: to evaluate the consumption of weight loss formulations and their possible association with risk of eating disorders (ED) in university students of health courses of different socioeconomic levels. Methods: A cross-sectional epidemiological study was carried out with 276 university students enrolled in four health courses. To obtain the data, three self-applied instruments were used: the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26), the Bulimic Investigatory Test of Edinburgh (BITE) and to investigate the consumption of weight-loss formulations a questionnaire prepared by the research team was used. For the data analysis, the chi-square test was applied, adopting the level of significance of 5%. Results: Twenty-one university students presented a risk of ED by the EAT-26 scale, corresponding to 7.6% of the respon-dents. The frequency of use of weight loss formulations was 7.2%. There was a significant association (p < 0.001) between the use of weight loss formulations and the presence of risk for ED (33.3%), with a very high percentage when compared to the percentage of non-ED respondents who were using medication (5.1%). Conclusions: The consumption of dietary formulations was associated with both the presence of risk for ED, on the EAT-26 and BITE scales, and on socioeconomic levels, especially for income class C.