Jorunn Sundgot-Borgen

Norwegian School of Sport Sciences (NIH) · Department of Sports Medicine

Purpose To determine the gender-specific impact of recent exposure to different forms of sexual harassment and sexual violence (SHV) on depression and anxiety symptoms three, six, and nine months later. Methods We recruited 2229 women and 1274 men studying at Swedish universities and followed them with web-surveys every three months over one year....

A high prevalence of low energy availability (LEA) has been reported in female football players. This is of concern as problematic LEA may evolve into a syndromic pattern known as relative energy deficiency in sport (REDs). Given the difficulties in accurately assessing LEA, our study shifts emphasis to measurable indicators of REDs, serving as pro...

Background: The association between SHA and negative mental health increases the need to understand risk factors for SHA victimization, which is important for future development of prevention programs. Objective: To examine which combinations of demographic-and mental health factors were associated with subsequent SHA victimization, and the prevale...

Overall athlete health is a stated priority by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), yet it can be difficult for athletes to safely balance nutritional needs, training load, recovery, social interactions, expectations and other demands. The effect of energy intake and, especially, low energy availability (LEA) on athlete mental health, is unde...

Background The assessment of body composition (BC) in sport raises concern for athlete health, especially where an overfocus on being lighter or leaner increases the risk of Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) and disordered eating. Methods We undertook a critical review of the effect of BC on performance (29 longitudinal, prospective or in...

Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (REDs) is common among female and male athletes representing various sports at different performance levels, and the underlying cause is problematic low energy availability (LEA). It is essential to prevent problematic LEA to decrease the risk of serious health and performance consequences. This narrative review...

Optimal energy and nutrient intake is important for health and performance in youth athletes who also have additional energy needs due to growth and development. Specific recommendations for energy and nutrient intake for youth athletes are lacking, and as such adolescents are mainly advised to follow recommendations for adult athletes. Findings in...

Objectives To, based on diagnostic interviews, investigate the distribution of mental disorders among a sample of Norwegian elite athletes with ‘at-risk scores’ on a self-report questionnaire measuring symptoms of mental health problems. Then, to investigate the relationship between ‘at-risk scores’ and diagnosed mental disorders. Methods A two-ph...

Objective: The high burden of eating disorders (EDs) and limited availability of treatment speaks of a need to explore new avenues for treatment delivery. To understand if new treatment avenues are helpful and acceptable to patients, we investigated the effectiveness of Physical Exercise and Dietary Therapy (PED-t) in participants with bulimia ner...

Purpose To examine high school students’ disclosure of sexual harassment and abuse (SHA), and awareness of reporting systems and support mechanisms in school among students, leaders, and coaches. Method Norwegian 17-year-old high school elite athletes (n = 630), recreational athletes (n = 307), and reference students (n = 263) responded to an onli...

Background The Low Energy Availability in Females Questionnaire (LEAF-Q) is a screening tool developed to detect endurance athletes and dancers at risk for development of persistent low energy availability (LEA) and the female athlete triad (Triad). This study investigated the applicability of the LEAF-Q in a cohort of sixty professional female foo...

Talent-school settings may generate stress via demanding expectations. To investigate students representing Norway’s growing phenomenon of early adolescent talent schools, we interviewed twenty-seven 14- to15-year-old boys and girls about their experiences with self- and socially imposed expectations. Students were recruited from two sports schools...

Background: Disordered eating (DE) behaviors are relatively common among high-level dancers, especially in classical ballet. At the same time, interventions aimed at reducing DE behaviors in this population are scarce. Methods: An 8-week exploratory preventive intervention for DE behaviors was carried out in a high-level ballet school for 40 tee...

Objectives: To contribute further knowledge about symptoms of anxiety, depression, body concerns, and self-worth among young talent development (TD) and mainstream students by exploring the indicators within-person combinations prospectively, aiming to identify distinct profiles. Methods: We included 946 students, n = 168 (45% girls) from three...

Purpose Chaotic eating and purging behavior pose a risk to the metabolic health of women with bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge-eating disorder (BED). This study reports on one-year changes in blood markers of metabolic health and thyroid hormones in women with BN or BED attending two different treatments. Methods These are secondary analyses from a...

Introduction: There is a need to change the culture within the art of dance, as it has been associated with injuries and mental health consequences. This study evaluates an intervention designed to increase mental health literacy, enhance nutritional knowledge, reduce symptoms and effects of low energy availability, and strengthen understanding of...

Background Mediation analysis is important to test the theoretical framework underpinning an intervention. We therefore aimed to investigate if the healthy body image (HBI) intervention’s effect on eating disorder (ED) symptomatology and use of muscle building supplements was mediated by the change in risk and protective factors for ED development...

Purpose: To examine the 12-months prevalence and 12-months prospective change in reported sexual harassment and abuse (SHA)-victimization among young elite athletes, recreational athletes, and reference students in three different social settings and identify the perpetrators. Methods: In total, 919 adolescents responded to an online questionnai...

Oral presentation

Background: To explore motives for combat sport participation, weight regulation practices, symptoms of low energy availability (LEA), disordered eating (DE) or eating disorders (ED), and any experiences with sexual harassment (SH) among female combat-sport athletes. Methods: In total, 29 athletes were recruited by social media and in clubs. Par...

The purpose of the study was to assess the accuracy of commonly used GPS/accelerometer-based tracking devices in the estimation of exercise energy expenditure (EEE) during high-intensity intermittent exercise. A total of 13 female soccer players competing at the highest level in Norway (age 20.5 ± 4.3 years; height 168.4 ± 5.1 cm; weight 64.1 ± 5.3...

Abstract Background Use of dietary supplements (DS) and muscle enhancing dietary supplements (MEDS) is frequent among students despite the lack of evidence of effects and health risks related to consumption. We need to increase our understanding of students’ motivation, examine potential gender differences, and explore explanatory factors, to addre...

Introduction Despite the fact that group fitness instructors serve as significant role models with potentially great impact on class participants' motivation for exercise, they are a very under-researched group. The aim of this study was therefore to examine group fitness instructors' motivational regulations for exercise, and how these motivationa...

Enduring low energy availability (LEA) is associated with several potentially serious physiological and mental conditions. LEA has been found highly prevalent among female elite athletes within endurance sports, thus hampering athletes’ health and performance. The prevalence and the underpinning risk factors of LEA among female elite football playe...

Introduction: This paper explores frequency of experiences of sexual harassment (SH) among fitness instructors, outlines the typical perpetrator, and explores associated mental health symptoms. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Materials and Methods: A total of 270 Norwegian fitness instructors, recruited in social media, responded to an electronic q...

Objective To investigate the immediate and 12-months effects of a school-based intervention aiming to reduce risk and enhance protective factors for eating disorder development in high school boys and girls. Method In total, 4,149 adolescents from 30 high schools were eligible for inclusion and 2,446 consented to participate and were randomly allo...

Objective: This study aimed to estimate the number of weekly users of protein, creatine, and dieting supplements and to explore whether weekly use was related to eating disorder (ED) risk factors, exercise, sports participation, and immigrant status. Methods: In total, 629 and 1060 high school boys and girls, respectively, self-reported weekly freq...

Accumulating evidence suggests that supervised and adapted physical activity provides cognitive benefits for individuals with eating disorders (EDs). The mechanisms underlying the benefits of physical activity are poorly understood. Addressing this knowledge gap may inform the appropriate integration of structured physical activity into eating diso...

Background Body image is considered a core issue for public health and associates with university students’ overall health. Due to positive associations between exercise and body image, it has been suggested that students within an exercise science program might be more body appreciative compared to other students. On the other hand, the strong soc...

Purpose The fitness centers are settings for health promotion, yet may serve as a stage for counterproductive figure idealization. Such idealization may take the form of a drive toward the thin, the muscular, or lean body figure ideal, which all hold the potential to impel an experience of body appearance pressure (BAP) and body dissatisfaction. Th...

Purpose: The aim of this study was to map changes in working and living conditions of Norwegian personal trainers (PTs) during the Covid-19 lockdown spring 2020. Methods: A total of 150 PTs (mean (SD) age 35.5 (8.4) years, with 6.5 (5.3) years of experience as PT, and 61% female) in Norway responded to an online survey. Results: Number of PT sessio...

Football is a global game which is constantly evolving, showing substantial increases in physical and technical demands. Nutrition plays a valuable integrated role in optimising performance of elite players during training and match-play, and maintaining their overall health throughout the season. An evidence-based approach to nutrition emphasising...

We examined both direct and indirect effects of the Healthy Body Image (HBI) intervention on positive embodiment among Norwegian high school students. In total, 2446 12th grade boys (43 %) and girls (mean age 16.8 years) from 30 schools participated in a cluster-randomized controlled study with the HBI intervention and a control condition as the st...

Introduction Fat is a metabolic fuel, but excess body fat is ballast mass, and therefore, many elite athletes reduce body fat to dangerously low levels. Uncompressed subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT) thickness measured by brightness-mode ultrasound (US) provides an estimate of body fat content. Methods The accuracy for determining tissue borders i...

Objective: To compare effects of physical exercise and dietary therapy (PED-t) to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in treatment of bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge-eating disorder (BED). Method: The active sample (18-40 years of age) consisted of 76 women in the PED-t condition and 73 in the CBT condition. Participants who chose not to initiate...

Purpose: Eating disorders (ED) are complex and severe illnesses where evidence-based treatment is needed to recover. However, about half of the patients with ED do not respond to treatments currently available, which call for efforts to expand the portfolio of treatments. The aim of this study was to explore experiences from patients who dropped ou...

Objectives: Positive embodiment and healthy lifestyle habits seem to be related; therefore, stimulating positive embodiment should promote healthy lifestyle habits. In the current study, we delivered the Healthy Body Image (HBI) intervention among Norwegian high school students and examined the effects on healthy lifestyle habits. Methods: The H...

Physical activity relates to optimal health, still the prevalence of mental health issues is high among athletes. Being young, female, and competing in aesthetic sports is a high-risk combination for mental health symptoms. Fitness physique athletes (FA) match this profile but are understudied. We aimed to study the intensity of mental health sympt...

Objectives To enhance knowledge on pregnancy and return to sport in the postpartum period in elite female athletes. Methods 34 Norwegian elite athletes (33.1 years) and 34 active controls (31.5 years) were asked about training and competitive history, pregnancy-related issues, injuries, body dissatisfaction (BD), drive for thinness (DT), eating di...

Introduction: Competing in aesthetic sports increases the risk for low energy availability and associated and health impairments. Fitness physique sport is a popular, but understudied aesthetic sport. We evaluated health and symptoms of relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-s) in female fitness athletes (FA) and female references (FR) during a...

The versatile construct of perfectionism has been heavily debated, e.g., its nature or measurement constituents, how it influences performances or, most importantly, our health. Conventional linear analyses seem inadequate to address such challenges. Hence, we used a latent variable and a person-centered approach to identify different patterns of p...

Background Strenous exercise stimulates the hypothalamic-pituitary (HP) axis in order to ensure homeostasis and promote anabolism. Furthermore, exercise stimulates a transient increase in the neurotrophin brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) suggested to mediate the anxiolytic effects of exercise. Athletes with secondary functional hypothalamic...

Recently Dittmer et al. (JED 6:1–9, 2018). suggested a transdiagnostic definition and a clinical assessment for compulsive exercise in adolescents and adults with eating disorders. In this letter to the editor, we extend the transdiagnostic bridge to the DSM-5-criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorders and hence raise the issue of exercise obsessi...

Objectives To study the expectations women with bulimia nervosa (BN) or binge eating disorder (BED) had to a new treatment programme based on guided physical exercise and dietary therapy. Design and participants Semistructured interviews were conducted with six women with BN and four women with BED following a group-based therapy programme. Transc...

We examined the effects of the Healthy Body Image (HBI) intervention on positive embodiment andhealth-related quality of life among Norwegian high school students. The intervention comprised threeinteractive workshops, with body image, media literacy, and lifestyle as main themes. In total, 2,44612thgrade boys (43%) and girls (mean age 16.8 years)...

A new group based treatment for patients with bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED), combining guided Physical Exercise and Dietary therapy (PED-t), has shown the capacity to alleviate BN and BED symptoms. The PED-t is run by therapists with a professional background in sport sciences and nutrition, which in many clinical settings i...

This chapter focuses on female athlete‐specific issues in paddlers. Body composition and anthropometry play an important role for athletic performance in paddling. Data from anthropometric measurements on male and female elite canoe/kayak paddlers report less body fat and increased upper‐body and arm musculature that is related to performance and m...

Abstract Background Dysfunctional thoughts- and use of physical activity (PA) are core symptoms of the eating disorders (ED) bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED). The compulsive desire for PA complicates a favourable treatment outcome; hence, regular, adapted PA led by personnel with competence in exercise science is rarely part of...

Persons with bulimia nervosa (BN) or binge eating disorder (BED) have an elevated risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). However, lowering this risk is rarely addressed in standard cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT). We aimed to compare CBT with an intervention combining physical exercise and dietary therapy (PED-t), and hypothesized that the...

Objective To investigate the prevalence of eating disorders (EDs) in 45 Danish and Swedish endurance athletes (26.5 ± 5.5 years) recruited from national teams and competitive clubs. Method Protocol included clinical assessment of EDs based on DSM-IV criteria (ED-Examination-16 interview), gynecological examination, bone mineral density (BMD) and re...

Introduction Psychological distress is increasing among adolescents and clusters with other mental health problems such as eating problems. The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of psychological distress among young elite athletes and age-matched controls and whether prevalence figures may be attributed to perfectionism and eating...

Session Title: Correlates and Behavioral Aspects of Physical Activity in Youth and Teens Session Number: C-41 Session Viewing Date/Time: Thursday May 31, 2018 7:30 AM - 12:30 PM Presentation Time: 9:00am - 10:30am Poster Board Number: 146 ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: Being physically active is associated with a positive body image (PBI)(1). Gyms offer a p...

Background: Body dissatisfaction and disordered eating raise the risk for eating disorders. In the prevention of eating disorders, many programmes have proved partly successful in using cognitive techniques to combat such risk factors. However, specific strategies to actively promote a positive body image are rarely used. The present paper outline...

Objective: Knowledge about physical fitness in women with bulimia nervosa (BN) or binge-eating disorder (BED) is sparse. Previous studies have measured physical activity largely through self-report, and physical fitness variables are mainly restricted to body mass index (BMI) and bone mineral density. We expanded the current knowledge in these gro...

In persons with anorexia nervosa (AN), compulsive exercise and osteopenia are common symptoms. Although treatment of osteopenia besides weight regain is lacking, maximal strength training (MST) has been found to be effective in other populations. Such training has not been prescribed to those with AN due to uncertainty of tolerance. We therefore ex...

Objectives: The aim of the current study is to explore how therapists running a guided physical exercise and dietary therapy programme (PED-t) experience their contribution to the treatment of patients with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder. Methods: Ten therapists running the PED-t were semi structurally interviewed and the transcribed int...

Introduction Women with bulimia nervosa and binge eating disorder often suffer for many years before they seek professional help. Evidence-based treatments like cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) might be poorly accessible, and about 50% of those who receive CBT respond to it. Such outcome may reflect the heterogeneous nature of eating disorders,...

Objectives To investigate how women with bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED) experience participating in a new treatment programme for eating disorders, based on guided physical exercise and dietary therapy. Design and participants Six women with BN and four with BED were semistructurally interviewed. Transcribed interviews were a...

Background and aims To enable clinicians to identify the clinical picture and treatment progress and to adjust eating plans according to personal energy needs, it is important to know the patient's correct resting metabolic rate (RMR). Indirect calorimetry (IC) is the preferred method for assessment of RMR, but long duration of measurement increase...

Poster presented at the Vilnius meeting of the European Council on Eating Disorders (ECED 2017)

Background Sufferers from bulimia nervosa (BN) and binge eating disorder (BED) underestimate the severity risk of their illness and, therefore, postpone seeking professional help for years. Moreover, less than one in five actually seek professional help and only 50% respond to current treatments, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). The impe...

We aimed to estimate and compare within-day energy balance (WDEB) in athletes with eumenorrhea and menstrual dysfunction (MD) with similar 24-hour energy availability/energy balance (EA/EB). Furthermore, to investigate whether within-day energy deficiency is associated with resting metabolic rate (RMR), body-composition, S-cortisol, estradiol, T 3...

Comprehensive and up to date, this textbook on children’s sport and exercise medicine features research and practical experience of internationally recognized scientists and clinicians that informs and challenges readers. Four sections—Exercise Science, Exercise Medicine, Sport Science, and Sport Medicine—provide a critical, balanced, and thorough...

Background Precise and accurate field methods for body composition analyses in athletes are needed urgently. Aim Standardisation of a novel ultrasound (US) technique for accurate and reliable measurement of subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT). Methods Three observers captured US images of uncompressed SAT in 12 athletes and applied a semiautomatic ev...

To examine the prevalence and factors associated with instruction-related injuries and musculoskeletal pain among group fitness instructors. Descriptive epidemiology study. Online survey. Group fitness instructors from three fitness centre companies in Norway (n = 1473). Assessment of independent variables: questions regarding duration of working a...

The health, fitness and other advantages of youth sports participation are well recognised. However, there are considerable challenges for all stakeholders involved-especially youth athletes-in trying to maintain inclusive, sustainable and enjoyable participation and success for all levels of individual athletic achievement. In an effort to advance...

Introduction: The traditional image and requirements of an ideal soldier and officer is associated with values such as physical fitness, hardiness, aggressiveness and courage. All, which are values, considered masculine and which traditionally are not associated with women and femininity. Further, it is an extreme focus on bodily appearance today...

The present study aimed to examine disordered eating behavior (DE) and self-reported eating disorders (ED) among Norwegian group fitness instructors. Group fitness instructors from Norway (n = 685 females and 152 males, response rate: 57 %) completed an online survey. The survey included the instruments Eating Disorders Inventory (EDI) and the Exer...

Low or reduced energy availability (LEA) is linked to functional hypothalamic oligomenorrhea/amenorrhea (FHA), which is frequently reported in weight-sensitive sports. This makes LEA a major nutritional concern for female athletes. The aim of this study was to describe dietary characteristics of athletes with LEA and/or FHA. Endurance athletes (n =...

In April 2014, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) published a Consensus Statement in the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BJSM) entitled “Beyond the Female Athlete Triad - Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S)”. To assist sports medicine professionals working in clinical sports medicine with the practical screening and management of...