Eating disorders may raise health risks up to a decade after diagnosis, study finds

Eating disorders could raise the risk of serious health issues even years later, a new analysis has found.

People with eating disorders are more likely to report liver problems, diabetes, osteoporosis, and depression within a year of diagnosis – and these risks remain up to a decade later, according to the study, which was published in the journal BMJ Medicine.

The findings could have implications for the 16 million people worldwide who suffer from eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia nervosa, which are medical conditions involving abnormal eating habits and fixations on food and body image.

The UK-based research team analysed data from about 24,700 people in England who were diagnosed with an eating disorder, and compared them with about 493,000 people who had similar backgrounds but no eating disorder.

Girls and women made up 89 per cent of the people in the study. Among those with eating disorders, about 15 per cent had anorexia, 21 per cent had bulimia, and 5 per cent had a binge eating disorder, with other or unspecified disorders making up the remaining 60 per cent.

Within the first year of diagnosis, people with eating disorders were significantly more likely to have liver disease, kidney failure, osteoporosis, diabetes, heart failure, depression, self-harm, and suicide compared with those who did not have an eating disorder.

Both five and 10 years later, risks were lower but remained elevated.

The findings underscore the “importance of ongoing monitoring for long-term physical health outcomes in individuals with a history of eating disorders,” the researchers wrote.

The study has some limitations, notably that researchers do not know how severe the patients’ eating disorders were or how this severity may have affected their health outcomes.

Compared to people without eating disorders, these patients were also more likely to have health problems, particularly mental health issues, before their diagnoses. These conditions can make eating disorders worse.

Even so, the researchers said the data sheds new light on the long-term toll of eating disorders.

They called on general practitioners (GPs) to do more to support people in recovery, for example, by coordinating more closely with specialists.

“A potential gap exists in provision where patients' difficulties are too complex for low intensity brief interventions but not complex enough for specialist teams,” they said.

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