At the beginning of the GRAD program, women and men who were more active were more satisfied with their bodies overall, according to a new study in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine.
At the end of the program, women in the program were also more likely to desire being thin and said they would agree with statements such as “I am terrified of gaining weight” and “I feel extremely guilty after overeating,” reports Marion Zabinski, B.A., of the SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. While the increase in drive for thinness was an unexpected negative effect of the study, it is important to note these concerns did not reach levels that would indicate an eating disorder.
However, this study has important implications for physical activity programs. “While increasing the drive to be physically fit is a desired outcome, the items endorsed more strongly by the intervention participants may be of concern given their extreme nature ….these data indicate that a health promotion program intended to increase activity may have unanticipated negative secondary effects,” she says.
Even though drive for thinness increased, body dissatisfaction did not change during the course of the study in women who participated in the exercise intervention, while body dissatisfaction actually decreased among women in a control group.
This suggests that the women who enrolled in the program may have already had more concerns about their weigh, the researchers say. “Women at risk of disordered eating may have been particularly likely enroll in the GRAD study so this group may have been susceptible to negative side effects of the physical activity program,” Zabinski says.
The results described in this article were based on data from the GRAD study, which included 338 college seniors, 54 percent of whom were women. That study showed that the program was effective in increasing physical activity among women compared with control participants. Their was no effect seen among men, likely due to the fact that many of them were already physically active on a regular basis.
This study suggests that it may be important to think about potential negative effects of health promotion programs and how to adequately address concerns regarding thinness among college-aged women, Zabinski says.
Annals of Behavioral Medicine is the official peer-reviewed publication of The Society of Behavioral Medicine. For information about the journal, contact Robert Kaplan, Ph.D., (858) 534-6058.
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Journal
Annals of Behavioral Medicine