Specific Dietary Practices in Female Athletes and their Association with Positive Screening for Disordered Eating

Abstract BACKGROUND: To determine if following specific diets was associated with responding positively to eating disorder/disordered eating (ED/DE) screening tools compared to non-diet-adherent athletes. We hypothesized that athletes adhering to specific diets were more likely to respond positively on ED/DE screening tools than those not following a diet. METHODS: 1000 female athletes (15-30 y) completed a comprehensive survey about athletic health and wellness. Athletes were asked to specify their diet and completed 3 ED/DE screening tools: the Brief Eating Disorder in Athletes Questionnaire, the Eating Disorder Screen for Primary Care, and self-reported current or past history of ED/DE. Descriptive statistics were calculated for all study measures and chi-squared tests assessed relationships between athletes’ dietary practices and their responses to ED/DE screening tools. Statistical significance was defined as p<0.05. RESULTS: 234 of 1000 female athletes reported adherence to specific diets. 69 of the 234 diet-adhering athletes (29.5%) were excluded due to medically-indicated dietary practices or vague dietary descriptions. Of the 165 diet-adherent athletes, 122 (67.9%) responded positively to ≥1 of the 3 ED/DE screening tools. Athletes practicing vegetarian, vegan, low-carbohydrate, low-dairy, or ≥2 diets were more likely to respond positively to ≥1 ED/DE screening tool vs. athletes without dietary restrictions (70.0%, 77.8%, 79.5%, 60.0%, and 65.6%, respectively vs. 41.8%; p≤0.048). CONCLUSION: Specific diet adherence in female athletes is associated with positive responses to ED/DE screening tools. Health practitioners should consider further ED/DE questioning of athletes reporting specific diet adherence in order to enhance nutritional knowledge and help treat and prevent ED/DE.