A systematic review from the Children’s Health Policy Centre provides data on the proportion of young people aged 12 to 18 years who met diagnostic criteria for eating disorders — meaning that they had both symptoms and impairment. Prevalence was derived by combining findings from five rigorous original studies that assessed eating disorders in the population. All five included anorexia and bulimia while one included binge-eating disorder; however, none included avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder. The overall prevalence for eating disorders was 0.2%. This means that at any given time, approximately 700 youth in BC will meet diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder and therefore need treatment.

Still, this figure may underestimate the needs, given that it is derived from studies conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic. And evidence is emerging that eating disorder cases increased during the pandemic. For instance, a study of six Canadian pediatric hospitals found a sharp rise in cases among nine- to 18-year-olds early in the pandemic. Specifically, new diagnoses rose significantly, from 24.5 per month during the previous five years to 40.6 per month during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March through November 2020).

For more information, see Vol. 18, No. 1 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.