Table 3.

Summary of evidence for syntheses comparing prevalence of disordered eating in elite athletes versus non-athletes.

Elevated risk of disordered eating for athletes	MA (1978–1998) of elite female athletes. DE higher in athletes than non-athletes (small effect) (Hasuenblas and Carron, 1999) [14]	MA (1975–1996) of female elite athletes. DE higher in athletes than non-athletes (small effect) (Smolak et al., 2000) [16]	* MA (1985–2012) of dancers. ED risk, including AN and EDNOS but not BN, higher in dancers than non-dancers. DE higher in dancers than non-dancers (Arcelus et al., 2014) [31]	* MA (1986–2013) of male athletes. DE higher for athletes than non-athletes for the Eating Attitudes Test (small effect) (Chapman and Woodman, 2016) [33]	* MA (1986–2013) of male athletes. DE higher for male wrestlers than non-athletes (small effect) (Chapman and Woodman, 2016) [33]
	SR (1994–2008) of elite athletes. DE and BIC higher in athletes than non-athletes (Rice et al., 2016) [34]	MA (2002–2013) of competitive body builders. MD higher in body builders than non-body builder resistance trainers (medium to large effects) (Mitchell et al., 2017) [35]	SR (2002–2017) of elite athletes. DE higher in athletes than non-athletes in 5/9 studies (no difference in 4/9) (Stoyel et al., 2020) [39]	SR (1996–2018) of retired elite athletes. DE higher in retired athletes than non-athletes (Buckley et al., 2019) [37]	SR (dates unclear) of male elite athletes. DE higher in athletes than non-athletes in 7/11 studies (Karrer et al., 2020) [6]
No significant difference in disordered eating	SR (1993–2011) of elite young (under 25 years) athletes. Mixed findings with no conclusive evidence of elevated risk of DE for athletes (Werner et al., 2013) [30]	MA (1986–2013) of male elite athletes. No difference between athletes and non-athletes for DE (Chapman and Woodman, 2016) [33]	* MA (2001–2021) of female athletes. No difference between athletes and non-athletes for DE, drive for thinness, restricting, binge eating (Chapa et al., 2022) [23]
Lower risk of disordered eating for athletes	* MA (2001–2021) of female athletes in non-lean sports. Drive for thinness lower in athletes than non-athletes (Chapa et al., 2022) [23]

Note. Red indicates greater risk for elite athletes versus non-athletes, grey indicates no difference in risk for elite athletes, and green indicates lower risk for elite athletes. * indicates the inclusion of both elite and non-elite athletes in the sample. SR = systematic review, MA = meta-analysis, DE = disordered eating, AN = anorexia nervosa, EDNOS = eating disorder not otherwise specified, BN = bulimia nervosa, BIC = body image concerns, MD = muscle dysmorphia.