Peer Recognition of Disordered Eating Behaviors: Implications for Improving Awareness through Health Education

ABSTRACT

Background: Eating disorders (ED) are a concern on college campuses, yet comprehensive education and awareness is low. Few studies have investigated knowledge of disordered eating not fitting prototypical depictions or recognition of disordered eating in males. Purpose: To assess college students’ ability to identify behavioral symptoms of ED in men and women. Methods: We explored problem identification ability after reading vignettes depicting either males or females displaying ED behaviors aligned with anorexia, bulimia, and binge eating disorder, and a healthy control vignette. Ordinal logistic was used to examine the effect of vignette target gender, participant gender, and disorder depicted on identification. Results: Approximately half of the sampled students correctly categorized vignettes as EDs. Participants were most likely to correctly identify the bulimia scenario as an ED, followed by anorexia, and binge-eating, and were more likely to identify ED if the vignette target was a woman. Discussion: The findings suggest awareness of behavioral presentations of ED, particularly in males, is low. This may stem from prototypical depictions of ED in the media and existing education material. Translation to Health Education Practice: Health education can focus on observable, behavioral symptoms of ED to improve identification in college students.

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

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