title: Female medical students are estimated to have a higher risk for developing eating disorders than male medical students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Studies show that university students are at risk for eating disorders. However, risk behaviour has not been studied among Danish medical students, nor have the gender differences in risk behaviour been described in a Danish context.
  
  
  METHODS
  All first-year medical students (n = 979) received a questionnaire related to body perception, exercise habits, eating habits, height and weight in the fall of 2006 and 2007. The response rate was 57% (n = 561). The gender distribution of the study population was 71.8% females and 28.2% males and the average age was 21.5 years.
  
  
  RESULTS
  More males (89.8%) than females (73.1%) were satisfied with their body and more females (34.8%) than males (10.9%) felt too fat. More females (42.7%) than males (19.9%) felt guilty when eating unhealthy food. 2.3% (all females) claimed to feel anxiety when they were about to eat. More males (48.4%) than females (28.6%) stated that they could not keep themselves from exercising. 13.5% of the underweight females (body mass index < 20 kg/m²) felt too fat, while none of the underweight males had this perception. In average, females and males displayed 2.8 and 2.1 risk behaviours, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Female medical students have a drive for thinness and male medical students want to be muscular. More female than male students have a negative body perception. Female medical students are estimated to have a higher risk for developing eating disorders than male students. Future research in this area should address the causes of such behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Unit of Women and Gender Research in Medicine, Section of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, 1014 Copenhagen K, Denmark. agdi@sund.ku.dk
authors.forename: Agnete Skovlund
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Dissing
authors.forename: Nanna Hasle
authors.initials: NH
authors.lastname: Bak
authors.forename: Laura Erna Toftegaard
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: Pedersen
authors.forename: Birgit H
authors.initials: BH
authors.lastname: Petersson
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D015992:Body Mass Index; D003718:Denmark / Q000453:epidemiology; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012737:Sex Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult