Towards Identifying Autistic Adults at Risk for Eating Disorders: A Brief Report Into Clustering of Social...

Autistic people with an eating disorder (ED) are at higher risk of poorer treatment outcomes and experiences, perhaps due to a lack of understanding surrounding underlying mechanisms. Several factors have been implicated, such as sensory processing and social camouflaging; however, there has been little empirical investigation into how such mechanisms group or cluster together, and if certain clusters place the individual at greater risk of ED severity.

A secondary data analysis was conducted on an online survey of n = 180 Autistic adults (mean age = 38 years). Participants completed self-reported measures of sensory processing, social camouflaging and ED symptoms. Hierarchal clustering analyses (HCA) was conducted to explore clustering on sensory and social camouflaging behaviours, and a one-way ANOVA was conducted to explore between-cluster differences on ED symptoms.

Three distinct clusters were identified: Cluster 1 (high camouflaging, low sensory); Cluster 2 (high camouflaging, high sensory); and Cluster 3 (low camouflaging, average sensory). Participants in Cluster 2 reported significantly higher ED symptoms that those in Cluster 3. There were no significant differences between remaining clusters.

Findings suggest the combination of these factors may place Autistic individuals at higher ED risk, although future longitudinal, mixed-method and more representative research, which considers a wider range of risk mechanisms, is urgently needed before conclusions can be drawn.