RESEARCH ARTICLE Problematic Exercise in Anorexia Nervosa: Testing Potential Risk Factors against Different Definitions

“Hyperactivity ” has a wide prevalence range of 31 % to 80 % in the anorexia nervosa litera-ture that could be partly due to the plethora of definitions provided by researchers in this field. The purpose of this study was two-fold: 1) To assess the variance across prevalence rates of problematic exercise encountered in patients with anorexia nervosa, in relation to seven different definitions found in the literature. 2) To examine how core eating disorder symptoms and the dimensions of emotional profile are associated with these different defini-tions and the impact of these definitions on the assessment of patients ’ quality of life. Exer-cise was evaluated in terms of duration, intensity, type and compulsion using a semi-structured questionnaire administered to 180 women suffering from severe anorexia ner-vosa. Seven different definitions of problematic exercise were identified in the literature: three entailing a single dimension of problematic exercise (duration, compulsion or inten-sity) and four combining these different dimensions. Emotional profile scores, obsessive-compulsive symptoms, eating disorder symptomatology, worries and concerns about body shape, self-esteem and quality of life were assessed using several established question