Healthcare utilization among women with eating disordered behavior

This study was designed to explore relationship between self-reported eating disordered behavior (without formally established eating disorder diagnoses) and healthcare utilization among women in a primary care setting. Through a self-report questionnaire, 150 participants between the ages of 17 and 49 were asked if they had ever vomited, starved themselves, or abused laxatives in a manner that was intentional and self-harming (i.e., eating disordered behavior identified as pathologic by the participant). Participants who reported a history of disordered eating (n = 17) exhibited higher scores on two of five measures of healthcare utilization (mean number of telephone contacts and mean number of specialist referrals) compared with participants without eating disorders (n = 133). These data suggest that eating disordered behavior may be a predictor of increased healthcare utilization among women in primary care settings.