Research from Cleveland State University is cited in a sad New York Times story about college coaches ignorance of health issues facing female athletes. The article begins with the wrenching story of a female runner, Alex DeVinny, a Wisconsin state track champion in 1993 who for years hid eating disorders. When she won her title, she was 5-foot-8 and weighed 125 pounds. Ms. DeVinny died last March, at age 20, from cardiac arrest related to starvation. She weighed 70 pounds. Her college coach told The Times that he is so troubled by her death and his failure to see warning signs that he since has quit coaching girls. Even the best-trained psychologist can have a difficult time filtering through the deceptive acts and statements that can accompany an eating disorder, The Times reports. And yet coaches have long been encouraged to identify a syndrome of under-eating, known as the female athlete triad, to help athletes avoid osteoporosis, stress fractures and in rare cases like Ms. DeVinnys even death. The term triad refers to a pattern of decline that starts with disordered eating and leads to menstrual dysfunction, which can signal the loss of bone density, according to the newspaper. Yet, according to a recent survey, even highly trained collegiate coaches are largely in the dark about the specifics of female athlete triad and how to detect it. The survey, conducted by Kathleen J. Pantano, an assistant professor of physical therapy at Cleveland State, found that only 43 percent of the 91 college coaches for womens athletics surveyed could name the elements of the triad, the paper reports. The survey also found that 24 percent mistakenly thought that nonexistent or irregular periods were natural consequences of vigorous exercise rather than the telltale signs of nutritional deficiency. In 2003, the National Collegiate Athletics Association surveyed over 2,800 coaches about disordered eating, and found that only 19 percent of men and 26 percent of women were aware of the seriousness of amenorrhea, defined as menstrual dysfunction for three or more months. Last year, the NCAA published a handbook advising coaches to look for possible signs of disordered eating, including stress fractures, cold intolerance and excessive use of the restroom, according to the newspaper. The booklet states that coaches with tremendous power and influence over student-athletes should help manage the triad. But the Cleveland study indicates that the message is not getting through.
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