Body Image, Eating Disorder and Selected Physiological Variables

The purpose of the study was to compare the body image, eating disorder, body mass index (BMI) and physiological variables (peak flow rate, pulse rate, blood pressure) between athletes and non-athletes. To achieve the objectives of the study, a total of 120 subjects; sixty male and female athletes and sixty male and female non-athletes were selected randomly from Panjab University, Chandigarh (India). The age of the subjects ranged between 18 to 25 years. To determine the significant differences,'t' test was applied. The level of significance was set at 0.05. There were significant differences found on body image, eating disorder and diastolic blood pressure among female athletes and non-athletes. There were no significant differences on BMI, peak flow rate, pulse rate and systolic blood pressure between female athletes and non-athletes. No significant differences were obtained on body image, eating disorder, BMI, and physiological variables between male athletes and non-athletes. It can be concluded that female athletes and non-athletes are significantly differed in body image, eating disorder and diastolic blood pressure.