Abstract

Author(s): Fernandes Bezerra, Diego; Alves Sampaio, Lucas Vinicius; Raposo Landim, Liejy Agnes dos Santos

Introduction: It is known that the practice of physical exercise brings several benefits to our health, such as improved metabolism, disease prevention and muscular endurance, but can be a risk factor for the development of disorders related to body image. In the face of this, we see that this distortion and dissatisfaction cause growth in the prevalence of eating disorders in both sexes, so there is a search for a body that is compatible with the beauty pattern, which can lead to bulimia, orthorexia, vigorexia (Muscular Dysmorphia) and body dissatisfaction.

Objective: To identify the prevalence of Orthorexia and Vigorexia among university students.

Methods: The study was of descriptive quantitative cross-sectional study, with 104 university students aged 18 to 40 years, from a Higher Education Institution (HEI), with quantitative contribution. Anthropometric data were collected to determine the nutritional status through the Body Mass Index (BMI). The diagnosis of orthorhexis was made using the instrument developed by Bratman to identify the use of a muscle dysmorphic instrument, which was developed and validated by Pope.

Results: according to the BMI, 67.3% of university students are in a state of eutrophy, in the same way, the percentage of body fat pointed out a percentage of 63.5 for adequate weight. In relation to orthorexia, 13.8% of the men and 24% (n = 18) of the women were classified as health fanatics, while the results of the diagnosis of vigorexia indicated that 76% of the women and 89.7% of the men do not have the disorder.

Conclusion: Vigorexia and orthorexia had a high prevalence for positive diagnoses for the disorders in the study population. It is important that health professionals can use this type of information to improve the understanding and identification of these disorders.