Trends and prevalence of eating disorders in children and adolescents

Eating disorders (EDs) have increasingly become a public health problem globally, especially among children and adolescents.

To estimate the burden of EDs in children and adolescents (ages 5-19 years) at the global, regional, and national levels.

Retrieved from Global Burden of Disease Study 2019 for EDs, including anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, we extracted the disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and prevalence rates with 95% uncertainty intervals between 1990-2019. The temporal trends of the DALYs and prevalence rates of EDs were assessed according to the estimated annual percentage changes.

In our study, we found that the burden of EDs continuously increased globally from 1990 to 2019. Although females accounted for more EDs cases, the burden of EDs in males had a greater increment. Meanwhile, the burden of EDs was associated with the high sociodemographic index (SDI) over the past 30 years and the human development indexes in 2019.

EDs, predominantly in high-income countries, are rising globally, especially in Asia, highlighting the need for resource planning and medical policy prioritization across all SDI quintiles.