Epidemiology of Eating Disorders: Incidence, Prevalence and Mortality Rates

Abstract

Eating disorders are relatively rare among the general population. This review discusses the literature on the incidence, prevalence and mortality rates of eating disorders. We searched online Medline/Pubmed, Embase and PsycINFO databases for articles published in English using several keyterms relating to eating disorders and epidemiology. Anorexia nervosa is relatively common among young women. While the overall incidence rate remained stable over the past decades, there has been an increase in the high risk-group of 15–19 year old girls. It is unclear whether this reflects earlier detection of anorexia nervosa cases or an earlier age at onset. The occurrence of bulimia nervosa might have decreased since the early nineties of the last century. All eating disorders have an elevated mortality risk; anorexia nervosa the most striking. Compared with the other eating disorders, binge eating disorder is more common among males and older individuals.

Eating behaviors, body image, perfectionism, and self-esteem in a sample of Portuguese girls

“…1 Women with eating disorders are also at risk of long-term psychological and social problems, including depression, anxiety, substance abuse, and suicide. 2 Personal, behavioral, and socioenvironmental factors have been identified as risk factors for eating disorders. 3 Considering socioenvironmental factors, images of women in the media and popular culture apply considerable pressure to be thin on vulnerable young girls and women, for whom it is difficult to live up to these expectations, regardless of their natural body shape.…”

Adolescents with Eating Disorders: Are there Identifi able Characteristics?

“…The low number of Maori patients is Patients in our study were not exclusively wealthy and in fact were more likely to come from middle to low socioeconomic groups. Patients were also younger than previous reports [6,7]. Patients presented to services at a mean age of 14.5…”

“…Purported risk factors for developing an eating disorder include family history, urban living, participation in gymnastics, low self-esteem, high levels of perfectionism, early menarche, migrants from developing countries, sexual and physical abuse, substance abuse, parental marital status, sexual orientation and experience of bullying [4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. However, the low incidence of eating disorders means there are few current studies describing the characteristics of adolescents with eating disorders.…”

Dental Implications of Eating Disorders

“…In men, it is more frequent than anorexia and amounts to 0.1-0.7% [10]. Bulimic symptoms appear later than those of anorexia -between 18 and 25 years of age [4,6,7]. Chief symptoms are episodes of binge eating followed by provoked vomiting or other forms of purging and constant, excessive care about one's body mass and size [11,12].…”

“…Similarly to anorexia nervosa, bulimia causes many somatic complications likely to be life threatening. Studies show higher mortality of those affected compared to the general population, especially if the deaths were due to suicide [6,7,13].…”