Comparison of eating disorders status between first and fourth year of nutrition and dietetics students in a private university in Istanbul

Nutrition is balanced and adequate food intake to ensure protection and development of health. When individuals' requirements, habits, family and social environments are evaluated, nutrition is multi factorial issue which shows alterations and diversity according to age groups. Nowadays, although healthy eating perceptions are frequently emphasized, "thin body perception" which are affected by social pressure and media" also begins significantly important for last years. This condition which increase in developed societies and some societies influenced by Western culture interest particularly university students. Involvement in new social environment, changing of eating habits, becoming "weight subject" as focus in social media and cultural environment induce development of eating disorders. When the university students compare according to their department, some studies suggest that nutrition and dietetics students can be in highly risk group for development of eating disorder because of their enhanced knowledge status about "food", "weight control" and "body composition"[1]. The aim of this study is determination and comparison of eating disorders status between first and fourth year of nutrition and dietetics students. Two hundred two nutrition and dietetics students were recruited from a private university, in İstanbul. The survey was conducted between September 2013 and 2014. All participation was voluntary and protected by not using names. Anthropometric measurements such as weight (kg) and height (cm) were obtained from all participants and these parameters were used for calculation of body mass index (BMI) and Eating Attitudes Test -40 (EAT-40) was applied for determination of eating disorder status. According to data obtained from this study, while 179 of nutrition and dietetics students (88.6%) did not have eating disorder, 6 of students (3%) have eating disorder and 17 of students (8.4%) have moderate risk for development of eating disorder. When students are compared according to their class, first year of nutrition and dietetics students exhibited that 3.3% of them had eating disorder behavior and 9.1% students had moderate risk for development for eating disorder; fourth year of the students demonstrated that 2.5% of them had eating disorder behavior and 7.4% of the students had moderate risk for abnormal eating behavior. The difference between classes and eating disorder behaviors of students was not found statistically significant. (p>0.05)