swimming. Only 22% of respondents stated
their school offers such programs for ath-
letes once per year/semester (21 people)
or monthly/weekly/daily (5 people), but
100% of those respondents stated they are
very/extremely or somewhat important.
an increased need for campus staff
or student leaders implementing such
programs. NEDA’s own outcomes data
on the impact of NEDAwareness Week
efforts indicates a strong positive corre-
lation between increased awareness and
education, and individuals reaching out
for support and treatment referrals, point-
ing to potential importance of sustained
education of the student body in directing
those struggling to help. Additional
research (Tillman et al., 2012) found that
students who attend an event are much
more likely to be educated about avail-
able resources.
Overall 91.6% of respondents stated
screening and referral programs by the
athletic department is very/extremely
(70.6%) or somewhat (21%) important,
yet only 26% stated their school offers
such screenings/referrals once per year/
semester (15 people) or monthly/weekly/
daily (16 people).
Of those who do offer screening and
referrals through the athletic depart-
Education and prevention efforts with-
in the Greek system were reported to
be very/extremely important, but not
very frequently offered. Of the 35.3%
who said their school has Greek–spon-
sored programs about eating disorders
once per year/semester, 95.3% stated it
is important.
ment, 100% believe it is very/extremely
or somewhat important.
Education campaigns are believed
to be the most successful of the
programs/services offered, but
outcomes data is largely unavail-
able for the range of programs and
services included in the survey.
Programs designed to educate stu-
dent athletes in high–risk sports
are very much lacking. Screenings
for athletes are also critically lacking.
Respondents mostly cited education
campaigns (46%), followed by counseling
resources (35%) as the programs and
services that are successful, but very few
respondents (only 11%) could point to
actual evaluation outcomes as the basis
for their response.
Research indicates high–level athletes, and
particularly those competing in certain
sports, are at a higher risk for the develop-
ment of an eating disorder.
Only 22% of those surveyed indicated that
their school offers screening and referrals
by the collegiate athletic department and
an alarmingly low percentage—only 2.5%
The low percentage of programs evaluated
(16.5% were aware of any programs that
had been evaluated, and of those only
11% knew the results) indicates a need
for more systematic and comprehensive
evaluation of the impact of eating disorder
services, resources, awareness outreach,
—have year–round prevention and edu-
cation programs for athletes in high–risk
sports such as gymnastics, wrestling, and
15