Eating disorders are often thought to primarily affect White people, but a study in the International Journal of Eating Disorders suggests that eating disorders affect college students at largely similar rates across racial and ethnic groups. Furthermore, where differences emerged along racial and ethnic lines, some minoritized groups had a greater probable prevalence and severity of eating disorders than Whites.
Carli P. Howe, a graduate student at the University of Washington in St. Louis, and colleagues analyzed data from 3,929 students from 26 U.S. colleges and universities whose results on a mental health screen suggested the presence of an eating disorder. Participants self-identified as Asian, Black, Hispanic, multiracial, or White. They were also asked about their gender identity and were categorized as men, women, cisgender, or non-cisgender.
The researchers found that:
- Non-cisgender Asian participants had the highest prevalence of probable anorexia nervosa (8.64%), followed by cisgender Asian women (3.61%), non-cisgender multiracial participants (3.28%), and cisgender multiracial women (2.5%).
- Non-cisgender Hispanic participants had the highest prevalence of probable clinical or subclinical bulimia nervosa/binge eating disorder (20.49%), followed by cisgender Hispanic women (18.2%), cisgender multiracial women (17.25%), and cisgender White women (15.54%).
- Non-cisgender Black participants were most likely to be at high risk for eating disorder onset (6.67%), followed by cisgender Hispanic women (5.87%), cisgender White women (4.83%), and cisgender Black women (4.52%).
- Among participants with probable eating disorders, there were no significant differences between racial or ethnic groups across any gender with respect to the frequency of eating disorder behaviors such as binge eating, vomiting, or laxative/diuretic use in the past three months.
“These findings are key for refuting widely held stereotypes that [eating disorders] primarily affect White individuals and also underscore a critical need for solutions aimed to equitably address [eating disorders] in college populations,” the researchers wrote.
They added that universal screening and intervention for eating disorders on college campuses have the potential to significantly reduce the population prevalence of eating disorders in college students: “Such universally delivered programs may include targeted interventions for racially/ethnically minoritized students. These directions represent a critical path to closing the large [eating disorder] treatment gap in this high-risk population.”
For further information, see the Psychiatric Services article “Eating Disorder Treatment Access in the United States: Perceived Inequities Among Treatment Seekers.”
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