lifetime prevalence

Lifetime Prevalence of Eating Disorders Among Eating Disorder Professionals

Tetyana 15 Comments

How many professionals that treat eating disorders have a personal history of struggling with an eating disorder? It is a crucial question to ask (and answer) because there are important implications for patient treatment and for the health of the afflicted professionals. It is true that many (or most?) individuals who go into mental health do so because of personal experiences–whether due to their own personal history or the experiences of a loved one–so it is useful to ask, just how common are eating disorders among ED treatment professionals?

This is the question that Nicole Barbarich asked in a survey mailed to 823 members of the Academy for Eating Disorders.

Barbarich developed a 14-item self-report questionnaire that assessed everything from basic demographics to personal eating disorder history and their employer’s hiring policies. Out of 823 potential participants, 399 completed the questionnaire.

SUMMARY OF MAIN FINDINGS

Demographics of Survey Responders… Continue reading →

How Common Are Eating Disorders? Incidence, Prevalence and Mortality Rates

Tetyana 1 Comment

Six month of blogging and I have yet to do a proper post on the prevalence of eating disorders. I think it is about time. I see all sorts of numbers thrown around, often depending on the purpose of the article and the author’s bias. Is it 1 in 1000, 1 in 100, 1 in 20 or maybe even 1 in 2? Who is right?

Well, it is a tricky question to answer.

The number depends on how the particular study was conducted. Here are some factors that may influence the final rates: the population being studied, the sample size, the definition of eating disorder, the methods used by researchers to identify and screen for individuals with eating disorders, the number of years over which data is collected, and so on. In other words, a lot! That’s why in order to get a better sense of the true numbers, I … Continue reading →