Eating Disorders among Female University Students and its' Relation with their Body Attitudes and Mindful Eating

Abstract

Eating disorders are a major public health issue faced by female university students. Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating often have a variety of irreversible and life threatening medical complications. Despite disordered eating attitudes and body image dissatisfaction are common among female college students, mindful eating makes a conscious food choices and eating healthfully. The aim of the study was to: Assess eating disorders among university female students and its relation to their body attitude and mindful eating behaviors. Study design: Correctional descriptive design. Settings: This study was conducted at two faculties affiliated to Tanta University that were chosen randomly. Subjects: A multistage randomized sample of 627 female students at the previous mentioned settings. Study tool: A structured questionnaire schedule was used to collect the necessary data. It consisted of four parts: Socio-demographic characteristics of the study subjects, eating disorders scale (EDDS), body attitude test (BAT) and mindful eating questionnaire. Results: Nearly one quarter of the studied subjects had eating disorders while 30.9% of them were at risk of developing eating disorders. Binge eating disorder was the most frequent among the studied subjects, followed by bulimia nervosa while anorexia nervosa was of the least frequency. About one third of the study subjects had negative attitude toward their body, and 61.4% of them reported moderate level of mindfulness of eating behavior. Positive correlation was observed between eating disorders and negative body attitude, while negative correlation was found between eating disorders and mindfulness of eating behaviors of the study subjects. Conclusion ,recommendations: Female students who had poor mindful eating and negative body attitude are more prone to eating disorders. So, community mental health nurse should implement educational programs to modify unhealthy eating habits and correct body image distortion in female university students