Prevalence of Eating Disorders among Media Persons such as Actors, Models, Hosts, Anchors and Celebrities

Abstract

Background: People in media usually faced immense pressure to maintain their body shape and particular appearance to meet societal standards of beautification. It led to a higher level of stress in these individuals to strictly control their weight. This study aimed to figure out the prevalence of eating disorders in people attached to media including actors, TV anchors, models, hosts and celebrities.

Methodology: This study utilized a cross-sectional design to investigate the prevalence of eating disorders among media professionals. Simple random sampling technique was utilized to select the participants from the targeted population. A total of (n = 60) samples were collected, half of them were males and the other half were females by using Taro Yamini formula.

Results: A total of 60 participants (mean age 22.45 ± 3.33 years) were enrolled for the study, with equal gender ratios (50% male, 50% female). In regards to participant BMI classifications, 6.7% were identified as underweight, 51.7% normal, 35.0% overweight, and 6.7% obese. Using EAT-26 scoring, 58.3% of participants were identified as having an eating disorder. Behavioral patterns reflected binge-eating, self-induced vomiting, use of weight-control medications, and excessive exercise at varying frequencies with just a handful, 1-2.% of participants reporting extreme forms of behavioral patterns daily. Analyzing BMI categories and eating disorder status through chi-square analysis did not reveal an association (p > 0.05). Independent sample t-tests confirmed substantial gender differences in current weight, highest weight, lowest weight, and ideal weight (all p < 0.01), with men reporting higher weight across the board.

Conclusion: This study concluded that the prevalence of eating disorders was high in media personnels, while males reported higher weight metric when compared with females.