Prävalenz psychischer beschwerden und problematischen essverhaltens bei weiblichen und männlichen medizinstudierenden

This study investigates differences in the prevalence rates of psychological distress, dysfunctional eating attitudes as well as under- and overweight between female and male medical students. The study sample consists of N = 141 second-year medical students (representing 76.6 % of the whole student sample). Although female students exhibited higher symptom scores than males in nearly all variables, there were no significant differences in prevalence rates (based on gender-specific reference data) between female and male students. For females, the highest prevalence was in general psychological distress (39.5 %), male students had highest prevalence rates in the domain of anxiety (45.3 %). Depending on the specific subscale, between 16.1 and 22.9 percent of the female and 9.5 to 23.5 percent of the male students reported dysfunctional eating attitudes. Using restrictive criteria (underweight: BMI < 20), 30.6 percent of the female and 23.5 percent of the male students were underweight.