University a health hazard?

A recent study done at the University of Alberta has shown that going away to university may be bad for a students' wellbeing.

But according to the study, which focused on eating disorders, mainly binge-eating, with first-year female students living away from home, it's only a specific group of people who seem to be at high risk.

“We looked at GPA for that semester,” said Erin Barker, one of the researchers involved with the study. “We also looked at the number of class hours per week. A third variable was a questionnaire where we asked the student to rate how well they're adjusting academically; so were they keeping up their work, were their grades ok.

“And none of those three academic variables were related to them binge eating.”

The study, which was published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, revealed three variables that lead to binge-eating, the first that students who were having a hard time fitting in at the university, or were struggling with making friends, were more likely to report having binge-eating problems.

“Another variable we looked at was whether or not the participants were living at home,” Barker explained. “We found that the participants who were living away from home were also at great risk of reporting symptoms of binge eating during that first semester at university.

“And the final variable that we found to be significant was body dissatisfaction, which is related to body image, so having poor body image they weren't happy with their appearance, weight and shape and so on, feeling over weight, that kind of issue is a vulnerability of eating disorders in general.”

Barker, who's now working as a professor at Wisconsin's Beloit College, believes the study also showed that it doesn't necessarily have to be leaving for school that leads to binge eating as a coping-mechanism.

“I think it can apply more broadly to that transition,” said Barker. “If you have to reestablish a new social network and you feel that you aren't doing that in your new setting, what our study showed was that they were at greater risk. Just having a large disruption in your social network can contribute to the onset of the problem.”

But the problem is manageable. By making an attempt to get involved on campus, join clubs, attend school sponsored functions, and even, if you're living in a dorm, by taking a study break to watch your favourite TV show with some floor mates are only a few of the options available to students.