Establishing Cause for Drunkorexia: Co-Occurring Drinking and Weight Management Behaviors

Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Poster Area 2 (Foyer Outside Exhibit Hall C) (Convention Center)
Anna K. Gardner and Adam E. Barry, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL
Objective: Examine the co-occurrence of alcohol consumption, physical activity, and disordered eating behaviors via a drunkorexia perspective.

Participants: Nationally representative sample (n=22,488) of college students completing the Fall 2008 National College Health Assessment.

Methods: Hierarchical logistic regression was employed to determine if physical activity and disordered eating behaviors uniquely predicted binge drinking, while controlling for age, race, gender, year in college, Greek membership, and place of residence.

Results: Physical activity and disordered eating made unique, statistically significant contributions. Moreover, including physical activity and disordered eating behaviors allowed for the correct classification of an additional 431 cases (i.e. binge drinkers) over and above the predictive ability of the covariate-only model.

Conclusions: Findings corroborate prior research indicating highly active college students are more likely to binge drink than their non-active peers, and highlight the potential of a drunkorexia perspective in explaining the counterintuitive alcohol-activity association among college students.