[Disordered eating and eating disorders among professional athletes]

According to the International Olympic Committee, in 2019, the proportion of problematic eating habits and/or eating disorders among female athletes was between 6–45% and between 0–19% among male athletes. With a constantly increasing prevalence, they appear more frequently compared to the non-athletic population. All sport types can be affected, but certain athletes can be classified in a special risk group, mainly aesthetic, weight-dependent and endurance sports. There is a variety of measurements, most of the time questionnaires, which can only be used for the screening of risk groups. In order to establish a diagnosis, the cooperation of a sports physician, team doctor, sports psychologist and sports dietitian is necessary in a multidisciplinary approach. The starting point of disordered eating is often dieting, when athletes want to influence their weight and body composition for various reasons (e.g., performance enhancement, improvement of physical appearance, fitting in a weight group, etc.), for which they use professionally unfounded strategies without dietetic supervision. Eating disorders begin with optimal nutrition that transform into problematic eating behaviors and then manifest into clinical eating disorders. Currently, there are only a few longitudinal studies available that specifically examine the continuity of disordered eating and eating disorders, although the research results so far draw attention to the screening of disordered eating and the need for physician-psychologist-dietitian cooperation before the eating disorder develops. Analyzing the process would be gap filling in as many sports as possible. Orv Hetil. 2024; 165(8): 291–296.