Abstract:
The female athlete triad is a well-known syndrome that has an impact on two interconnected
conditions such as Eating Disorder (ED) and Menstrual Dysfunction (MD).
Females have particular reasons to sustain injury situations. Musculoskeletal injuries
are defined as any injury to the bones, muscles, ligaments, nerves, or tendons that
causes discomfort. The main purpose of this study was to find the relationship between
eating disorders, menstrual dysfunction, and musculoskeletal injury among selected
female national athletes in Sri Lanka. The study was conducted as a retrospective
cohort study. One hundred female athletes who represent the national level in selected
sports between the ages of 20-30 were selected as a sample from a random sampling
method. The sample consisted of Basketball (14), Cricket (28), Football (22), Hockey
(22), and Netball (14) playing females excluding mothers and pregnant women. Data
were collected through Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) which
includes information regarding ED and MD and Modified Standard Musculoskeletal
Injury Questionnaire. Spearman correlation test, ANOVA, and Tukey pairwise comparison
test was used to analyze data using Minitab 19 software. The average ED, MD,
and MI of athletes were 12.9, 20%, and 1.3 respectively. There was no relationship
between ED and MD (r = −0.022, p > 0.05); ED and MI (r = 0.122, p > 0.05) and
MI and MD (r = 0.079, p > 0.05). ED and MI were not significantly different among
athletes engaged in different sports categories (p > 0.05). Furthermore, MD was also not
significantly different among athletes engaged in different categories of sports (p > 0.05).
In conclusion, there is no relationship between eating disorders, menstrual dysfunction,
and musculoskeletal injury among female athletes.
