Wiktoria M. Borowska, Christopher Curtis, Jose M. Saavedra and Hafrún Kristjánsdóttir 2025. Investigating eating disorders and body image dissatisfaction in physically and non-physically active Icelandic females. Nordic Psychology. Advanced online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/19012276.2025.2556663
| Title | Investigating eating disorders and body image dissatisfaction in physically and non-physically active Icelandic females |
|---|---|
| Type | Journal article |
| Authors | Wiktoria M. Borowska, Christopher Curtis, Jose M. Saavedra and Hafrún Kristjánsdóttir |
| Abstract | The objectives of this study were (i) investigate the prevalence of body image concerns, eating disorder symptoms, orthorexia nervosa and in Icelandic female exercisers and compare them to non-exercisers and (ii) to know the differences in body image concerns and eating disorder symptoms based on exercise status and exercise frequency. Four-hundred and fifty-eight responses were received, finally forming the study sample 256 Icelandic females older than 18 years participated in the study (39.6 ± 11.4 years old, range 18–69 years old). Four questionnaires were used: the Body Shape Questionnaire to assess body image concerns; the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire to identify disordered eating attitudes and behaviours; the Bulimia Test-Revised to assess the main symptoms of bulimia; and the Dusseldorf Orthorexia Scale to assess orthorexic behaviours. A Mann-Whitney U was used to examine differences in questionnaire scores according to the exercise status of participants. Kruskal-Wallis H test was used to examine differences in medians between weekly exercise frequencies. A Chi-square test was performed to assess differences in the level of body image dissatisfaction between exercisers and non-exercisers. The results showed (i) the percentage of exercisers with body dissatisfaction (moderate and severe) was higher (45%) than in non-exercisers (31%); however, the prevalence of clinical cut-off scores was higher in non-exercisers, especially in orthorexia nervosa (63% vs 43%); (iii) only in orthorexia nervosa were there differences in total values between exercisers and non-exercisers), and (iv) there were no significant differences in any of the questionnaires based on the number of weekly sessions of exercise. |
| Journal | Nordic Psychology |
| ISSN | 1901-2276 |
| 1904-0016 | |
| Year | 2025 |
| Publisher | Taylor & Francis |
| Publisher's version | License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 File Access Level Open (open metadata and files) |
| Digital Object Identifier (DOI) | https://doi.org/10.1080/19012276.2025.2556663 |
| Web address (URL) | https://doi.org/10.1080/19012276.2025.2556663 |
| Publication dates | |
| Published online | 11 Sep 2025 |