ArticleJournal of eating disorders2026
Prevalence and factors associated with disordered eating behaviors, food addiction, and compulsive exercise among females studying clinical nutrition in Saudi Arabia.
Article in Journal of eating disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDisordered eating behaviors (DEBs), food addiction (FA), and compulsive exercise (CE) represent increasing public health concerns among university students, particularly those enrolled in nutrition-related programs. Although research examining disordered eating attitudes in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, has expanded in recent years, studies specifically targeting nutrition major students and employing standardized assessment instruments remain limited. Therefore, this study aimed to estimate the prevalence of DEBs, FA, and CE and to examine their associations with body mass index (BMI), educational level, age, and academic achievement, as indicated by grade point average (GPA), among female nutrition students at Taibah University in Al Madinah Al Munawwarah.
methodAn analytical cross-sectional study was conducted from January 29 to May 1, 2025, among 138 undergraduate nutrition majors (aged 18-25) at Taibah University, Al-Madinah Al-Munawarah, using a self-administered online questionnaire to collect demographic data (age, BMI, GPA, educational level) and four validated instruments, the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire -Short (EDE-QS) and the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire-Revised 18-item version (TFEQ-R18) for DEBs, the Modified Yale Food Addiction Scale Version 2.0 (mYFAS 2.0) for FA, and the Compulsive Exercise Test (CET) for CE. Descriptive statistics were calculated, and unadjusted Pearson correlation analyses were performed to examine associations between study variables.
resultsBased on the EDE-QS, 21.7% of 138 clinical nutrition students were classified as having a high risk of eating disorders. Eating behavior patterns assessed by the TFEQ-R18 indicated that body mass index (BMI) showed a low positive association with cognitive restraint and a positive association with emotional eating, both negligible, whereas uncontrolled eating was significantly negatively associated with age and educational level. Severe food addiction was identified in 11.6% of participants, and 21% demonstrated high levels of compulsive exercise, whereas age, educational level, and GPA showed limited to no significant associations with most outcomes.
conclusionThis study highlights the importance of BMI as a key indicator in identifying at-risk students for DEBs, FA and CE. These findings highlight the need for future longitudinal research to examine causal relationships and to assess preventive and supportive strategies targeting maladaptive eating and exercise behaviors among nutrition students.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.