The Evolving Needs of Children Hospitalized for Eating Disorders During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in hospital admissions for adolescents with eating disorders (EDs). However, there is a paucity of information on how this increase has affected hospitalization courses and disposition planning. We sought to describe the changes in hospitalizations for EDs at our institution during the pandemic.

We reviewed charts of patients admitted to our academic medical center for nutritional restoration from January 1, 2017, to June 30, 2021. We report differences in patient characteristics and hospitalization courses using descriptive statistics and Poisson regression.

We reviewed charts for 85 patients for 108 hospital admissions. Admissions increased from 1.4 per month prepandemic to 3.6 per month during the pandemic (P < .001). Most patients were female (91%), White (79%), had private insurance, (80%) and had restrictive eating behaviors (97%). During the pandemic, we found (1) an increase in the average length of stay (12.6 days vs. 18.0 days) with younger age associated with longer length of stay (P < .001); (2) more patients requiring psychotropic medication management (11% vs 31%, P = .01); and (3) fewer patients discharged from the hospital with outpatient therapy (43% vs 24%, P = .03).

In addition to an increase in hospital admissions for ED management during the pandemic, our study highlights the evolving needs of ED patients during their hospitalizations. The implications of longer admissions with higher acuity at discharge represent areas where appropriate adaptations in inpatient management and disposition planning may improve the quality of care for ED patients.