A new “amazing” study of global data on eating disorders shows that they are far more common and more potent than previously reported.
Analysts found that the 2019 Global Survey for Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD) underestimated the incidence of eating disorders with nearly 42 million cases, resulting in the These orders are four times more common than previously reported.
“Our work highlights that eating disorders are far more common and more common than previously estimated,” said lead author Damian Santomauro, PhD, University of Queensland School of Public Health and Center for Mental Health Research, Brisbane , Australia. Medscape Medical News.
The study was published online March 3 in Lancet Psychology.
Policy Implications
The 2019 GBD Study alone reports the frequency and burden of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa under the guise of “eating disorders.”
However, binge eating disorder (BED) and other named eating or eating disorder (OSFED) are more common, the researchers note.
Excluding BED and OSFED, 41.9 million cases of eating disorders were not represented in the study.
The researchers estimate that GBD 2019 oversaw 17.3 million people with BED and 24.6 million people with OSFED.
Together, BED and OSFED accounted for 3.7 million life-changing disability (DALYs) in 2019, bringing the total eating disorder DALYs to 6.6 million in 2019, they report.
“When disorders are left out of the GBD, there is a risk that policymakers and service planners will explain that these diseases are not common or disabling and therefore not important to deal with, “Santomauro said.
“Our findings show that the formal introduction of eating disorder and OSFED in GBD is both feasible and important and will lead to better representation of the burden of falls. -order eating order across the globe.
“At the same time, this will improve recognition of the burden that people live with these disorders and hopefully encourage more investment in research, prevention and treatment in the future,” he said.
Landmark article, Clarion Call for Action
In an accompanying statement, Jennifer Thomas, PhD, and Kendra Becker, PhD, with the Eating Disorders Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, say this analysis is “amazing”. showing that eating disorders are four times more common than previously thought.
This “landmark” analysis also shows that BED and OSFED are particularly common with increasing age. He highlights the burden of eating disorders in men, “shattering the erroneous but complex stereotype that eating disorders only affect thin, young, white women,” says Thomas and Becker. marking.
This article, they write, serves as a “clarion call” for the inclusion of BED and OSFED in future versions of the GBD Review.
Going a step further, Thomas and Becker believe that the GBD Study should also include estimates of the frequency of avoidable / limiting, disordered eating disorders. rumination, and pica and that the inspectors should receive direct measures of the disability associated with all feeding and eating disorders. introduced into the DSM-5.
“If they do, the reported global burden will be even greater, reinforcing the clear need for more funding to diagnose, prevent and treat these destructive diseases,” Thomas and Becker concluded.
The study was funded by Queensland Health, the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The authors did not disclose any material financial relationships. Publications for the editors are listed by the original article.
Lancet Psychology. Published March 3, 2021. Full text, Comment
For more Medscape Psychiatry news, join us on Facebook and Twitter.