Introduction: Eating disorders are a group of diseases characterized by severe eating disorders. Adolescents are a particularly vulnerable group, mainly due to the physical, cognitive and social changes they experience during that time. Although more girls than boys suffer from eating disorders, recent studies have shown an increase in the incidence of eating disorders in boys. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to present eating disorders in boys. Methods of work: The diploma thesis used a descriptive method of work with a systematic review of literature in English, obtained through the portal of the Digital Library of the University of Ljubljana (DiKul). Via DiKul portal next databases were used, PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL and BASE with the help of Google Scholar. The articles included were published between the years 2003 and 2020, all freely available online and available in full text. We used 23 units of foreign scientific literature. Results: Many studies show that sport greatly increases the chance of developing an eating disorder in boys. Characteristics in which eating disorders differ between the sexes are the impact of sport, characteristic predispositions, rate of physical development, the impact of same-sex orientation, and the different response of the general public to the disease. Social stigma has a major negative impact on boys with an eating disorder as it hinders the recognition and treatment of this disease. Discussion: A review of the literature identified the main features of eating disorders in boys. Sport plays a negative role in the development of eating disorders in boys and also represents the most noticeable difference between the causes of eating disorders compared to girls. Despite the increase in the number of known cases, the current prevalence still underestimates the real situation, and the area of eating disorders is still poorly researched. In the future, research on eating disorders in boys, both abroad and in Slovenia, and research on the impact of raising public awareness on this topic would be needed.
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