Prevalence of body image dissatisfaction and risk of eating disorders in nutrition students

Body image dissatisfaction and pressure to have a beautiful body that could serve as professional marketing makes the nutrition course student a strong candidate for developing eating disorders. The aim of this study was to verify the prevalence of risk of eating disorders in nutrition students, as well as to assess body satisfaction and the view of the importance of physical appearance in professional practice. This is a cross-sectional study with nutrition students from a private college in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. A questionnaire was used to define the profile of the sample, the silhouette scale to verify body image dissatisfaction and the EAT-26 to measure the risk of developing eating disorders. In total 20 students participated, with a mean age of 22.7 +/- 2.1 years and mostly female (n=17). There was a predominance of body image dissatisfaction (70%), and most students interviewed want to lose weight (n=13). The median score of the EAT-26 was 11.5 points (1-28), with 20% (n=4) of prevalence for the appearance of eating disorders. The risk of eating disorder was correlated with age (r=0.49; p=0.02) and association with having children (U=15.5; p=0.04). It's concluded that the fact that students feel pressure to have an aesthetically beautiful body depending on the chosen profession is worrying, as the search for this ideal can trigger practices that will result in eating disorders.