Date of Award

Spring 2018

Document Type

Thesis Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Kinesiology

Committee Chairperson

Katherine E. Morrison, Ph.D., ATC

Committee Member

Christine Karpinski, Ph.D., RD

Committee Member

Lindsey Keenan, Ph.D., ATC

Abstract

Background: There is limited research on prevention strategies and screening procedures for those at risk for the Female Athlete Triad (FAT). Specifically, there is no NCAA regulation to adequately screen, despite the FAT Coalition providing a recommended 11-item Female Athlete Triad Questionnaire (FATQ) to identify those at risk. Currently, our institution incorporates a Health History Questionnaire (HHQ) containing 4 of the 11-items. Purpose: 1). Examine the differences between the HHQ and FATQ’s ability to highlight athletes at risk and 2). Determine if those at risk exhibit additional objective FAT markers. Methods: Non-analytic cross-sectional survey and follow-up analysis. Data was collected over three phases, consisting of the HHQ (Phase I), FATQ (Phase II), Brief Eating Disorder in Athletes Questionnaire (BEDA-Q), and BOD-POD Analysis test (Phase III). 193 female athletes participated in Phase I & II. 45 participants completed Phase III. Results: 64 of the 193 athletes who participated in Phase I & II were highlighted as “at risk” with the 11-item questionnaire compared to 4 athletes using the HHQ, resulting in a 31.1% increase in risk identification. Frequency distributions were run on the HHQ, FATQ, and BEDA-Q. Three out of the four Wilcoxon Rank test showed statistically significant differences between HHQ and FATQ responses. There was no correlation between the number of “flags” on the FATQ, BEDA-Q Score (rs=0.198, p=0.192) and % body fat (rs=0.096, p=0.532). Conclusions: More female athletes were highlighted at risk for the Female Athlete Triad using the recommended 11-item questionnaire in comparison to the current 4-items.

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