Abstract
Objective: To identify risk factors in young adults in higher education for the development of anorexia nervosa in a private college in Belém - PA. Methodology: The studied population consisted of 58 students enrolled in the undergraduate course in nutrition from the 3rd to the 8th period. To obtain the data, anthropometric evaluation, questionnaires: sociodemographic, EAT and body silhouettes scale were used. Results: A high percentage of risk was found for the development of Eating Disorders (ED) (39.65%), according to altered perception of image, body dissatisfaction and nutritional status in the studied population, and this risk was higher among the students who presented eutrophy. The fact that most of the eutrophic university students present image dissatisfaction due to overweight or grade I malnutrition is extremely worrying and indicates that these university students, despite having a suitable BMI, want to reduce their silhouettes even more. Conclusion: When associating the results obtained in the four instruments used, the majority of the evaluated ones presented with risk to develop ED like anorexia.