Healthcare utilization for eating disorders in Australia: 10 years of health data linkage

Eating disorders impact physical, psychological, and social well-being, and often need complex health care. Understanding changes in healthcare utilization is essential for policy and planning. This research evaluates healthcare utilization by people with eating disorders by linking person-level data across health settings to provide a system-wide description of eating disorder care.

This retrospective cohort study evaluates health service use by people with eating disorders aged 6 years or older in the three most populous states in Australia; New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria, for a 10-year period, 2010-2019, by linking data for hospital admissions (public and private), emergency department presentations and public outpatient mental health. Population rates and Average Annual Percent Change (AAPC) by age groups are reported.

Service use increased significantly over the decade in all states, in all healthcare settings, and was highest for young people. Public outpatient service contacts doubled in VIC, almost tripled in NSW, and increased 5-fold in QLD. Public hospital admissions doubled in NSW and VIC and tripled in QLD. Hospital admissions for males increased at a higher rate than for females in NSW and QLD, and public hospital admissions for males in QLD increased 6-fold over the study period. Presentations to emergency departments doubled in all states. Population rates and AAPC show increases were greatest in 16- and 17-year-olds.

This study covering three-quarters of the Australian population demonstrates substantial increases in rates of health service use for people with eating disorders between 2010 and 2019.