Citation

Thomas JJ, Keel PK, Heatherton TF. Eat. Weight Disord. 2011; 16(3): e216-e222.

Affiliation

Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, WAC 816D, 15 Parkman St., Boston, MA 02114, USA. jjthomas@partners.org.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

22290040

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Ballet dancers are at elevated risk for eating disorders, but the extent to which disordered eating attitudes and behaviors represent a relatively benign adaptation to an environment that values extreme thinness, or a functionally impairing form of psychopathology, has sparked considerable debate. METHOD: To determine whether disordered eating is associated with role impairment in dancers, we evaluated its association with musculoskeletal injuries among 239 adolescent female ballet students. RESULTS: Dance students reported a variety of lifetime disordered eating behaviors to control weight including fasting (29.3%), vomiting (9.6%), and laxative use (4.2%). More than half (52.3%) reported a lifetime history of injury (stress fracture, broken bone, and/or medically treated tendonitis). A greater number of lifetime disordered eating behaviors was associated with a greater number of lifetime injuries (p=0.01). Moreover, vomiting history was associated with greater likelihood of injury (p=0.004) and increased time to recover from injury (median difference=22.8 days, p=0.006). CONCLUSION: Although the direction of causality cannot be determined from this retrospective design, these results suggest that disordered eating is associated with role-relevant functional impairment, even among members of a subculture that values extreme thinness.

Language: en