title: A study of the relationship between eating disorders, stress level and selfesteem among medicine students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Stress of the higher studies leads to various disorders, especially eating ones. Such disorders, once present, may influence body image and self-esteem of young students.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  to assess the prevalence of eating disorders among a group of Medicine students and to study its links with stress level and selfesteem.
  
  
  METHODS
  It was a descriptive and analytic cross-sectional study, including 60 medicine students that were investigated during their revision for the final year exam. The participants had filled the perceived stress scale, the eating attitude test EAT-40 and The Rosenberg self-esteem scale.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The eating disorders were found in 11% of the participants. Those had a low to a very low self-esteem in 40% of cases and a high perceived stress level in 36, 4% of cases. The eating disorders were significantlymore frequent among the female students (p=0, 03), the more sedentary (p=0,019), having a low to a very low self-esteem (p=0,032) and a high perceived stress level (p=0,001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study shows that the prevalence of eating disorders is not negligible among medicine students. Their presence depends on certain personal aspects (physical activities, body image satisfaction) and contextual aspects (period of exams, stress). If existing, they would affect negatively the self-esteem, especially of the girls. These various results pave the way for a multidisciplinary approach to students particularly vulnerable to eating disorders.
authors.forename: Nada
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Charfi
authors.forename: Dorsaf
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Trigui
authors.forename: Jihène
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ben Thabet
authors.forename: Kaouthar
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hajbi
authors.forename: Nasreddine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zouari
authors.forename: Lobna
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zouari
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maalej