Eating disorders are serious and sometimes fatal illnesses that cause severe disturbances to a person’s eating behaviors. Obsessions with food, body weight, and shape may also signal an eating disorder. Common eating disorders include binge eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, and, less common but very serious, anorexia nervosa.
Based on diagnostic interview data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), median age of onset was 21 years-old for binge eating disorder and 18 years-old for both bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. 1
Additional information about eating disorders can be found on the NIMH Health Topics page on Eating Disorders. Binge eating disorder is characterized by recurrent binge eating episodes during which a person feels a loss of control and marked distress over his or her eating.
Age of Onset Based on diagnostic interview data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), median age of onset was 21 years-old for binge eating disorder and 18 years-old for both bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. 1 Prevalence of Eating Disorders in Adults
The most common age of onset is between 12-25. Although much more common in females, 10 percent of cases detected are in males.
Some studies have found that White adults have a higher lifelong prevalence for eating disorders including anorexia nervosa (Udo & Grilo, 2018), bulimia nervosa (Striegel-Moore, Dohm, Kraemer, Taylor, Daniels, Crawford, & Schreiber 2003), and binge eating disorder (Udo & Grilo, 2018) compared to other ethnic groups.
Eating disorders can and do occur in teenagers, and even in young children. But it's during the college years that young people, especially young women, are most at risk for developing them.
Eighty-five percent of patients have onset of the disorder between the ages of 13 and 18 years (although a survey of adolescents by Swanson et al found a median age of onset of 12.3 y). Patients who are older at the time of onset of the disorder have a worse prognosis, as do patients with an onset before age 11 years.
Although most individuals with anorexia nervosa are adolescent and young adult women, these illnesses can also strike men and older women. Anorexia nervosa is found most often in Caucasians, but these illnesses also affect African Americans and other races.
Table 2Anorexia Nervosa (%)Binge-Eating Disorder (%)Total33.843.6Female29.850.8Male50.228.9
Eating Disorder and High School According to a ten-year study conducted by The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders (ANAD), an estimated 11% of high school students have been diagnosed with an eating disorder.
Perfectionism. One of the strongest risk factors for an eating disorder is perfectionism, especially a type of perfectionism called self-oriented perfectionism, which involves setting unrealistically high expectations for yourself.
Those with a first-degree relative — a parent, sibling or child — who had the disorder have a much higher risk of anorexia. Dieting and starvation. Dieting is a risk factor for developing an eating disorder. There is strong evidence that many of the symptoms of anorexia are actually symptoms of starvation.
Bulimia affects more girls and younger women than older women. Teen girls between 15 and 19 and young women in their early 20s are most at risk. But eating disorders are happening more often in older women. In one study, 13% of American women over 50 had signs of an eating disorder.
4% of adolescents and teens, ages 13 to 18, suffer from an anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder.
Eating disorder statistics 2022. Global eating disorder statistics increased from 3.4% to 7.8%. Use these eating disorder stats to understand why the prevalence of eating disorders.
More than half (56.2%) of respondents with anorexia nervosa, 94.5% with bulimia nervosa, and 78.9% with binge eating disorder met criteria for at least one of the core DSM-IV disorders assessed in the NCS-R.
Bulimia Nervosa. Bulimia nervosa is characterized by binge eating (eating large amounts of food in a short time, along with the sense of a loss of control) followed by a type of behavior that compensates for the binge, such as purging (e.g., vomiting, excessive use of laxatives, or diuretics), fasting, and/or excessive exercise.
Based on diagnostic interview data from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R), median age of onset was 21 years-old for binge eating disorder and 18 years-old for both bulimia nervosa and anorexia nervosa. 1
Common eating disorders include binge eating disorder, bulimia nervosa , and, less common but very serious, anorexia nervosa. Additional information about eating disorders can be found on the NIMH Health Topics page on Eating Disorders.
Anorexia Nervosa. Anorexia nervosa is characterized by a significant and persistent reduction in food intake leading to extremely low body weight in the context of age, sex, and physical health; a relentless pursuit of thinness; a distortion of body image and intense fear of gaining weight; and extremely disturbed eating behavior.
adults aged 18 and older. 1
Unlike anorexia nervosa, people with bulimia can fall within the normal range for their weight. But like people with anorexia, they often fear gaining weight, want desperately to lose weight, and are intensely unhappy with their body size and shape.