Expert harps on early intervention for children with eating disorders

Spotting eating disorder symptoms in children as young as nine years old will allow health professionals to intervene early and save lives, an expert says.A team from Newcastle University has identified that girls and boys with more eating disorder symptoms at age nine also had a higher number of symptoms at age 12.

A new study published in the academic journal, Appetite, reveals the need to treat eating disorder problems as early as possible to help prevent children developing the life-threatening illness.

The six-year study identified three areas that parents, teachers and doctors should be alert to when looking to detect and help youngsters at risk of the health problem.
These factors include boys and girls with body dissatisfaction, girls with depressive symptoms, and boys and girls who have had symptoms at an earlier stage.It is believed that this research will help pave the way for early interventions to help young patients deal with their eating disorder.
Dr Elizabeth Evans, Research Associate at Newcastle University’s Institute of Health and Society, led the study.
She said: “This research was not about investigating eating disorders themselves; rather we investigated risk factors for developing early eating disorder symptoms.

Most previous work on children and young adolescents has only looked at the symptoms at one point in time so cannot tell which factors precede others.
Our research has been different in that we have specifically focused on the factors linked with the development of eating disorder symptoms to identify children at the greatest risk.

Results suggest the need to detect eating disorder symptoms early, since a higher level of symptoms at nine years old was the strongest risk factor for a higher level of symptoms at 12 years old.
Eating disorders are rare at age nine (1.64 per 100,000) but more prevalent at age 12 (9.51 per 100,000). The most common age for hospitalisation is 15 years old for both boys and girls.
Many more children have symptoms but do not develop a full eating disorder. Symptoms can include rigid dieting, binge-eating, making one sick after eating, and high levels of anxiety about being fat or gaining weight. Eating disorders are serious and can be fatal.