Food attitudes in female athletes: association with menstrual cycle length'

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Food attitudes in female athletes association
with menstrual cycle length.

• By Nancy I. Williams, Heather J. Leidy, Kathleen
  A. Flecker and Angelique Galucci
• Journal of Sports Sciences (Sept 2006), p. 979(8).

Presented by
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Abstract

• The aim of this study was to examine the
  relationship between indicators of risk of
  disordered eating, body image and varied
  menstrual cycle lengths. For this study to be
  done151 female athletes from 16 sports and 70
  female non-athletic controls (recruited from a
  university lecture class) completed several
  surveys. No differences in these scores were
  found between non-athletes with normal or
  irregular cycle lengths. In conclusion,
  irregularly short or long menstrual cycle length
  is associated with subtle indications of higher
  risk of disordered eating in female athletes.

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Introduction/Review of Literature

• The female athlete triad
• Disordered eating
• Exercise-associated menstrual disturbances
• Low bone mass (Otis, Drinkwater, Johnson, Loucks,
  Wilmore, 1997)

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Introduction/Review of Literature

• Contributing factors of disordered eating
• The focus on a thin physique/Pressure to lose
  weight to satisfy goals of coaches (Anderson,
  2001)
• Personality characteristics of athletes
  (Johnson, 1994)
• Sport participated in/ethnicity and gender
  (Engel et al., 2003)

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Introduction to the study

• To begin to examine whether early associations
  between the risk of disordered eating and the
  menstrual cycle can be detected in female
  athletes, the researches surveyed athletes at a
  large Division I University and compared their
  results with those of non-athletes at the same
  university.

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Hypothesis

• Abnormalities in menstrual cycle length (i.e.
  either short or long cycles) are associated with
  an increased risk of disordered eating.

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Participants

• There were 211 athletes that were recruited to
  participate in various sports, such as tennis,
  rugby, and swimming. There were also 131
  non-athlete females that were recruited from a
  university lecture class to serve as controls.
  Researches later found out that some participants
  were using hormonal contraceptives, which made
  the number drop from 211 to 151 and 131 to 70.

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Survey implementation

• In group meetings, participants were informed
  that the study was designed to examine eating
  practicing, menstrual cyclicity and physical
  activity. They then completed a series of surveys
  either at the end of practice of class, or at
  home. There was a large response due to
  encouragement from coaches, and extra credit
  offers from teachers.

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Survey Items

• There were many surveys taken so that the
  researchers could get the most accurate
  information about the participants as possible.
  One important survey was the 51-item Three Factor
  Eating Questionnaire. The TFEQ examine three
  factors of dietary restraint cognitive restraint
  of eating, disinhibition of control, and
  susceptibility to hunger.
• This study documented that restrained eaters
  ate fewer calories and more protein per day than
  the unrestrained eaters.

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Results

• No significant differences were found between
  the two groups of athletes and non-athletes
  dealing with cycling menstrual cycles.

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Results II

• However the eating disorder risk was
  significantly higher in irregularly cycling
  athletes that normally cycling athletes. There
  were no differences in risks between non-athletes
  of differing menstrual status.

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Discussion

• The results of this study suggest that
  menstrual cycles that are either shorter or
  longer than the typical range of 26-32 days are
  associated with significantly higher scores for
  indications of disordered eating in female
  athletes than menstrual cycles that fall in the
  normal range.
• Some associations of life stressors and changes
  in weight and long menstrual cycles have been
  noted in college-aged women.

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Conclusion

• Thus, the results of the current study add to
  the emerging model of progression from
  disturbances in body image to behavioral changes
  in line with disordered eating that result in
  energy restriction and subsequent physiological
  adaptations in energy expenditure.

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The End