The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and the National Eating Disorders Collaboration (NEDC) have joined forces to raise awareness of poor self-image and poor body image among high-performance athletes.
The Institute and NEDC released a position statement and supporting resources to assist sporting organisations address the issue and enable them to recognise that disordered eating could occur in any athlete, in any sport, at any time.
Chief Medical Officer at the AIS, David Hughes (pictured) said the AIS and NEDC had collaborated to provide a toolkit of resources for sporting organisations to improve understanding of the signs and symptoms of disordered eating and be able to refer athletes to seek additional help.
“The toolkit includes a dedicated website, policy templates, workshop delivery and other practical resources,” Dr Hughes said.
“Disordered eating and eating disorders occur commonly in the general community and sport is a microcosm of society,” he said.
“Due to the nature of high-performance sport we know that there is a higher prevalence of disordered eating and eating disorders in athletes compared to non-athletes.”
Dr Hughes said disordered eating was extremely complex and could affect the mental and physical health, as well as the performance of athletes.
“To help foster a healthy sport system for all athletes, we believe all sporting organisations should have a disordered eating policy in place that is tailored to suit the needs of their organisation and athletes,” he said.
The AIS and NEDC’s 41-page Disordered Eating in High Performance Sport Position Statement can be accessed at this PS News link.
