The research also reveals risk factors that can be used to identify girls engaged in weight-dependent sports, like gymnastics and ballet, who are particularly vulnerable to eating behaviors considered "disordered." These risk factors include depression, a history of sexual abuse, or abuse of cigarettes, alcohol or marijuana.

The investigators placed a girl in the "disordered eating behavior" category if she reported attempting to lose weight or prevent weight gain during the previous week by forcing herself to vomit, using diet pills, or taking laxatives or diuretics. The researchers did not use survey data for less-extreme behaviors, such as eating less to lose or keep from gaining weight, as these self-described actions do not necessarily indicate disordered eating.

"Although weight-related sports involvement has been associated [in previous studies] with elevated risk for eating disorders, not all youth involved in [these sports] display symptoms," notes lead author Nancy E. Sherwood, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

The findings appear in the July/August issue of the American Journal of Health Promotion.

To better characterize the young women at greatest risk, Sherwood and her colleagues analyzed selected data from a 1995-1996 survey of adolescent health in Connecticut. The sub-sample included 5,174 female public school students in the seventh, ninth, and 11th grades.

Like previous researchers who studied smaller groups, Sherwood reports, the investigators found that participation in a weight-related sport was a risk factor for disordered eating behaviors. A girl who participated in such sports, they observed, was 1.5 times more likely than a non-participant to engage in these behaviors.
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Contact: Amy Phenix
pheni001@umn.edu
612-625-8510
Center for the Advancement of Health
30-Jul-2002