Body image and attitudinal aspects of eating disorders in rhythmic gymnasts

Aesthetic sports, especially on a competitive level, are often considered as a risk factor for the development of an eating disorder. A few studies have examined this issue in rhythmic gymnasts, but no reports on body image disturbance exist for these athletes compared to anorectic patients.

Fifty elite rhythmic gymnasts (average age 14.8 years) including the German national team, 58 female patients with anorexia nervosa (AN; average age 15.5 years), and 56 high school girls (average age 14.9 years) completed the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 and the Test for Detecting Body Image Distortion in Children and Adolescents (Test zur Erfassung der Körperbildstörung bei Kindern und Jugendlichen). Furthermore, body weight and height, body mass index, presence of amenorrhea and frequency of exercise were surveyed.

Body mass index was significantly lower in the elite rhythmic gymnasts than in the high school students, and significantly higher than in the AN patients. Both the elite rhythmic gymnasts and the AN patients were significantly smaller than the high school students. The elite rhythmic gymnasts trained significantly more frequently compared with the AN group and the high school group. Regarding the Eating Disorder Inventory-2 and the Test for Detecting Body Image Distortion in Children and Adolescents, AN patients scored significantly higher on all explored subscales than both the elite rhythmic gymnasts and the high school students.

Even though some physical similarities were found for the elite rhythmic gymnasts and the AN patients, contrary to previous studies, no noticeable problems related to attitudinal aspects of eating disorders were detected in the elite rhythmic gymnasts. A mildly distorted body image of the abdomen was identified in elite rhythmic gymnasts, while AN patients expressed a broad body image distortion and students expressed no body image distortion. Our data do not allow us to draw conclusions regarding prevalence rates, long-term effects or male athletes.