Evelina Greckienė, Samanta Žiaunytė, Nikita Česnavičiūtė
Abstract
Eating disorders are an increasing global health concern. While clinically diagnosed eating disorders remain relatively uncommon in the general population, screening studies suggest that disordered eating and eating-disorder symptomatology may be relatively common among health care students. This narrative review summarises recent evidence on disordered eating and eating-disorder symptomatology among health care students (medicine, nursing, nutrition/dietetics). PubMed was searched for English-language human studies published from 2021 onwards, supplemented by one relevant 2019 meta-analysis. In total 20 publications were included. Across studies, screening-positive disordered eating was commonly reported, with substantial heterogeneity by country, instrument, and cut-off. Female sex, higher body mass index, earlier training stage, elevated perceived stress and internalising symptoms (anxiety/depression), and body-image dissatisfaction in the context of sociocultural pressure were the most consistently reported correlates. Orthorexic tendencies also appeared frequent in nutrition-related training. Medical and health sciences faculties should strengthen awareness and prevention, ensure confidential access to support, and consider low-threshold screening using validated tools, while future research should prioritise longitudinal designs and diagnostic assessment to clarify incidence and causal pathways.
Keyword(s): eating disorders; health care students; prevalence; literature review.
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