Distorted weight perception correlates with disordered eating attitudes in Kuwaiti college women

Dalal Usamah Zaid Alkazemi · Tasleem Ara Zafar · Mariam Ebrahim · Stan J. Kubow

53 citations0/0 files storedInternational Journal of Eating Disorders

No readable copy stored yet — this record is metadata only.

No open-access location is known for this record yet.

Literature note Cite in a project Citation map

Eating Disorders and Behaviors Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior Health and Lifestyle Studies

Abstract

Abstract Objective We investigated the presence of disordered eating attitudes and weight perception among young women at body mass index (BMI) values that correspond to underweight, normal weight, overweight, and obese weight status. Method Data were collected from 1,147 female undergraduate students (89% Kuwaiti nationals) recruited from Kuwait University through employment of the eating attitude test (EAT‐26) together with an anonymous, self‐administered questionnaire to determine the prevalence of symptomatology indicative of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. Results The mean EAT‐26 scores differed significantly between the weight categories. More students with overweight and obesity scored above the established EAT‐26 cut off value indicating at risk of disordered eating compared to students who were at a normal weight or underweight (52.1% vs. 38.8%, respectively, X2(1) =16.1, p < .001). Logistic regression analyses showed significantly higher odds ratios (ORs) for the groups with overweight and obesity for dieting and bulimic behaviors, while women at normal and underweight had higher ORs for restrictive oral control behaviors associated with anorexia nervosa. Distorted weight perception was found in all weight categories. Discussion The high proportion of disordered eating attitudes among Kuwaiti college women could not be attributed to obesity alone as the type of disordered eating behavior varied more by weight perception than by weight status. The high levels of eating disorder related symptoms could be due to a combination of the social influences, diet, and lifestyle of college students. Such factors need to be considered by healthcare professionals as early as possible with more focused programs towards promotion of healthy weight for college students.

Paper brief

Loading…

Cite this work

Citation unavailable for this work.

BibTeX RIS CSL-JSON

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Citations in this library

Citation map →

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 53 citations exist upstream.

References

2008Preliminary validation of the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2006Obesity, Disordered Eating, and Eating Disorders in a Longitudinal Study of Adolescents: How Do Dieters Fare 5 Years Later?2011Dieting and Disordered Eating Behaviors from Adolescence to Young Adulthood: Findings from a 10-Year Longitudinal Study 2008Eating Disorder Behaviors Are Increasing: Findings from Two Sequential Community Surveys in South Australia 2008Disordered Eating Attitudes and Behaviors in Overweight Youth 2007Weight gain, dietary restraint, and disordered eating in the freshman year of college 2001The Eating Attitudes Test: Twenty-five years later 2008Risk Factors Associated With Overweight and Obesity in College Students

Explore the map →

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.

Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.