Intervention in an elite ballet school: An attempt at decreasing eating disorders and injury

Professional dancers are known to develop reproductive problems in association with poor nutrition and eating disorders. We conducted a 2-year intervention study to determine if education, in the form of counseling, could decrease the incidence of reproductive dysfunction and injury, particularly stress fractures. Thirty-nine dancers were recruited from a highly elite professional ballet school. Our study consisted of two groups in which we compared the eight dancers who completeed the study to the 31 who did not. Our study suggests that subjects who completed the study were naturally thinner, more premenarchal, manifested less dieting behavior at baseline, and were further from their ideal weight than those who did not. We also found that their weight approached ideal, even though dieting behavior increased. High risk students appear to be those nearer their ideal weight. Within the group that did not complete the study, we found a higher level of aberrant eating behaviors. More individual attention is needed for prevention of eating disorders in this group.