Exercise dependence and attitudes toward eating among young adults

Abstract

Few community-based studies of exercise dependence have been conducted. This investigation examined the prevalence of exercise-dependence symptoms among 237 college undergraduates and the relationship of exercise-dependence symptoms to atypical and disordered attitudes toward eating. Women scored significantly higher than men on the Exercise Dependence Questionnaire's (EDQ) Exercise for Weight Control and Exercise for Health Reasons subscales, and the Dieting and Bulimia and Food Preoccupation subscales of the Eating Attitudes Test (EAT), and exhibited significantly more symptoms of exercise dependence than men. Number of exercise-dependence symptoms was significantly positively correlated with problematic attitudes toward eating. Dysphoric mood states, cognitive problems, craving for exercise, and other symptoms associated with abstinence from exercise were relatively common among women and significantly more prevalent than among men. Study findings suggest that women with clinical and subclinical eating disorders are at high risk for the development of exercise-dependence symptoms. Findings also supported the existence of primary and secondary exercise dependence.