MELBOURNE: Eating disorders can affect anybody, no matter their age, gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or body size.
Yet the myth that eating disorders are diseases of affluence persists and can mean those from wealthier backgrounds are more likely to receive a diagnosis and be able to access treatment.
In fact, people who experience socioeconomic disadvantage may be more at risk of developing eating disorder symptoms, such as excessive dieting, fasting or binge eating.
A new study from the United Kingdom followed 7,824 children, roughly half male and half female, from birth to 18 years. It found those born into financial hardship were more likely than others to later experience eating disorder symptoms as teens.
This means the stereotype that eating disorders only affect the rich is simply not true. And it shows we need to better understand the risk for children from lower-income families, so we can recognise and treat their symptoms earlier.
What the study looked at Previous research has shown eating disorders can affect people from all socioeconomic backgrounds, not just those with higher economic status.
But this new study is one of the first to show deprivation in childhood could be a risk factor for eating disorder symptoms in adolescence.
This new large, long-term study collected data from thousands of people over an 18-year period to investigate the impact of social and financial hardship.
Researchers looked at parents’ education, job type and where they lived. They also examined income, which was split into five groups from low to high. These were more aspects of social studies than previous research had considered. To assess financial hardship, mothers rated how much they struggled to afford daily expenses such as food, heating, clothing, rent and baby items. They used a scale from 0-15, with higher scores indicating greater hardship.
When the children grew up to be teenagers, researchers assessed eating disorder symptoms in all the young people across the study. Patterns of disordered eating included excessive dieting, binge eating, vomiting or using laxatives to get rid of food, and fasting.