Kimberly B Glazer1, Hannah N Ziobrowski2, Nicholas J Horton3, Jerel P Calzo4, Alison E Field5. 1. Department of Population Health Science & Policy and the Blavatnik Family Women's Health Research Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York. Electronic address: kimberly.glazer@mountsinai.org. 2. Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts. 3. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts. 4. Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine, Boston Children's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts; Division of Health Promotion and Behavioral Science, School of Public Health, San Diego State University, San Diego, California. 5. Department of Epidemiology, Brown University School of Public Health, Providence, Rhode Island; Department of Pediatrics, Warren Alpert Medical School, Providence, Rhode Island.
Abstract
PURPOSE: Male weight concerns tend to focus on shape and muscularity as opposed to a desire for thinness and remain underdetected by conventional eating disorder assessments. We aimed to describe the longitudinal course of weight concerns and disordered eating behaviors among males across adolescence and young adulthood. METHODS: We used prospective assessments of 4,489 U S. males, aged 11 to 18 years at baseline of analyses, in the Growing Up Today Study. We assigned mutually exclusive classifications of behaviors consistent with bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), purging disorder (PD); high levels of concern with thinness and/or muscularity; and use of muscle-enhancing products. We estimated the probability of maintenance, resolution, or transition to different weight concerns and/or disordered eating behaviors across consecutive survey waves. RESULTS: Less than 1% of participants met full or partial criteria for BN, PD, or BED at baseline. One-quarter (25.4%, n = 1,137) of males reported high weight concerns during follow-up; nearly all these cases (93.7%, n = 1,065) had high muscularity concerns. The most common transition in concerns or behaviors involved the addition of muscularity concerns to a preoccupation with thinness. Eleven percent of participants used muscle-building products during follow-up. Multi-year product use (23.0% [standard deviation 1.0%] of males who used products) was more common than maintenance of bulimic behaviors (3.0% [.7%] of BN/PD, 10.5% [1.2%] of BED cases). CONCLUSIONS: Integrating muscularity concerns and product use into health promotion and screening tools may improve prevention and early detection of harmful body image and weight control among adolescent and young adult males.
PURPOSE: Male weight concerns tend to focus on shape and muscularity as opposed to a desire for thinness and remain underdetected by conventional eating disorder assessments. We aimed to describe the longitudinal course of weight concerns and disordered eating behaviors among males across adolescence and young adulthood. METHODS: We used prospective assessments of 4,489 U S. males, aged 11 to 18 years at baseline of analyses, in the Growing Up Today Study. We assigned mutually exclusive classifications of behaviors consistent with bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), purging disorder (PD); high levels of concern with thinness and/or muscularity; and use of muscle-enhancing products. We estimated the probability of maintenance, resolution, or transition to different weight concerns and/or disordered eating behaviors across consecutive survey waves. RESULTS: Less than 1% of participants met full or partial criteria for BN, PD, or BED at baseline. One-quarter (25.4%, n = 1,137) of males reported high weight concerns during follow-up; nearly all these cases (93.7%, n = 1,065) had high muscularity concerns. The most common transition in concerns or behaviors involved the addition of muscularity concerns to a preoccupation with thinness. Eleven percent of participants used muscle-building products during follow-up. Multi-year product use (23.0% [standard deviation 1.0%] of males who used products) was more common than maintenance of bulimic behaviors (3.0% [.7%] of BN/PD, 10.5% [1.2%] of BED cases). CONCLUSIONS: Integrating muscularity concerns and product use into health promotion and screening tools may improve prevention and early detection of harmful body image and weight control among adolescent and young adult males.
Authors: Scott Griffiths; Stuart B Murray; Caroline Bentley; Kassandra Gratwick-Sarll; Carmel Harrison; Jonathan M Mond Journal: J Adolesc Health Date: 2017-04-04 Impact factor: 5.012
Authors: Jerel P Calzo; Nicholas J Horton; Kendrin R Sonneville; Sonja A Swanson; Ross D Crosby; Nadia Micali; Kamryn T Eddy; Alison E Field Journal: J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry Date: 2016-05-27 Impact factor: 8.829
Authors: Kimberly B Glazer; Kendrin R Sonneville; Nadia Micali; Sonja A Swanson; Ross Crosby; Nicholas J Horton; Kamryn T Eddy; Alison E Field Journal: J Adolesc Health Date: 2018-11-30 Impact factor: 5.012