Binge eating disorder symptomatology and its association with depression, anxiety and stress: a cross-sectional study in medical students/Sintomatología del trastorno por atracón y su asociación con depresión, ansiedad y estrés: estudio transversal en estudiantes de Medicina

Abstract

. Medical students have a higher risk of developing eating disorders, including binge eating disorder (BED), in relation to the general population. The aim of this research was to identify if medical education influences the presence of BED symptoms in two samples of medical students in a university in Mexico City. A cross-sectional study was conducted in which a survey was applied among two representative samples; one of first-year medical students and the other of final-year medical students. The instruments applied were DASS-21 and QEWP-5, and overall, a high prevalence of BED (12%) was found in both samples. Final-year students were 2.63 (OR) times more likely to have BED symptoms than first-year students. BED had a strong association with depression (OR = 9.1), anxiety (OR = 4.3) and stress (OR = 5.38). Regardless of academic level, females showed an increased probability of developing depression (OR = 1.82), anxiety (OR = 1.7) and stress (OR = 1.5) compared to males. BED symptomatology had a high prevalence among medical students who participated in this study and it correlates with psychosocial factors as well as academic grade.