Exercise dependence among Hungarian Fitness Center users – preliminary results

*Zsuzsa Menczel¹, Eszter Kovács², Andrea Eisinger³, Anna Magi³, István Vingender¹, Zsolt Demetrovics³

Summary
Regular physical activity plays an important role in the healthy life. However, excessive exercising might lead to addictive behavior. Exercise dependence (ED) is an extreme commitment to sports that was identified as a behavioral addiction.
The objective of the present study is to explore the prevalence of ED in a sample of fitness center users (n = 1743) recruited from 17 fitness and wellness centers in Budapest. A questionnaire-based survey was carried out to measure ED. Two standardized scales, the Exercise Dependence Scale (EDS) and the Exercise Addiction Inventory were used. Results revealed that 2.2% (on EDS) and 7 % (on EAI) of subjects belonged to the dependent group and 69.3% (on EDS) and 76.5 % (on EAI) showed ED-related symptoms. It is surmised that due to their sport activities, these groups are at elevated risk for ED. Moreover, younger people with decreased self-esteem tend to have higher likelihood and to have problems with excessive sport behaviour. Therefore it is important to raise the awareness of the harmful and risky patterns of exercise behaviour. The here adopted two instruments, EDS and EAI, might be utilized for to early detection of ED and prevention of the disorder.

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