Prevalence of Exercise Addiction and Its Correlation with Body Image Dissatisfaction and Eating Disorders among Physiotherapy Students during COVID-19 Pandemic

Background and Objectives: Exercise addiction (EA) may happen when an individual fails to perform exercise moderately causing turn into a compulsive behavior. Although there are growing evidence suggested that EA be comorbid with other issue such as body image dissatisfaction (BID) eating disorders (ED), however limited studies targeted on the Malaysian undergraduate population. Hence, present study aimed investigate prevalence of its relationship BID ED among physiotherapy students in Klang Valley, Malaysia during COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A cross-sectional was conducted by sharing online questionnaires which consists 3 main components: (i) Addiction Inventory (EAI) (ii) Body Shape Questionnaire-8C (BSQ-8C) (iii) Eating Disorder Diagnostic Scale (EDDS) assess risk together correlation between Results: total 282 has participated study. The pandemic 8.2%. There significant mean score (p=0.0.037, r=0.124). proved current (p<0.001, r=0.224). Conclusions: relatively low (8.2%) undergraduates observed. but weak correlations ED.