The predictive role of eating disorders and physical activity in findrisc diabetes risk: the sample of nutrition and dietetics students

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of eating disorder risk and physical activity level on diabetes risk in students enrolled in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics. Methods This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 313 students enrolled in the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at a private foundation university during the academic year of 2021-2022. Data was collected through face-to-face interviews using the Information Form, International Physical Activity Questionnaire, SCOFF Eating Disorders Scale, and Finnish Type-2 Diabetes Risk Questionnaire. The data was analyzed using IBM (R) SPSS (R) v.26 statistical software. Results Among the Nutrition and Dietetics students, 91.1% were female, mean age was 21.42 +/- 3.62 years, and mean body mass & imath;ndex was 21.72 +/- 3.25 kg/m2. According to International Physical Activity Questionnaire assessment, 8.9% of the students were categorized as inactive. The SCOFF Eating Disorders Scale assessment revealed that 25.6% of the students were at risk of developing an eating disorder. The Finnish Type-2 Diabetes Risk Questionnaire assessment indicated that 90.7% of the students had a low to slight risk of diabetes. The results of the correlation analysis showed that as International Physical Activity Questionnaire scores increased, Finnish Type-2 Diabetes Risk Questionnaire scores decreased by 16.8% (p=0.003), and as SCOFF Eating Disorders Scale scores increased, Finnish Type-2 Diabetes Risk Questionnaire scores also increased by 28% (p<0.001). The results of the multiple regression analysis showed that International Physical Activity Questionnaire significantly predicted Finnish Type-2 Diabetes Risk Questionnaire score, accounting for 3.8% of the variance, while SCOFF Eating Disorders Scale predicted Finnish Type-2 Diabetes Risk Questionnaire score, accounting for 8% of the variance (p<0.001). Conclusion The findings of this study suggest that physical activity level and susceptibility to eating disorders have a significant effect on the development of diabetes mellitus.