A team of researchers has found that in the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant increase in the number of eating disorder diagnoses and self-harm incidents among teenage girls in the UK.
The McPin Foundation, a mental health charity, and the Universities of Manchester, Keele, and Exeter collaborated on the study, which was published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health.
Eating disorders were found to be 42% higher among females aged 13 to 16 in comparison to previous trends and 32% higher among those aged 17 to 19, according to an analysis of UK GP records from 2010 to 2022 for young people aged 10 to 24.
Females between the ages of 13 and 16 experienced the highest rate of self-harm, with 38% more episodes than anticipated.
“The reasons for the rise in eating disorder diagnoses and self-harm episodes among adolescent girls during the pandemic are likely to be complex, and could be due to a combination of issues such as social isolation, anxiety caused by changing routines, disruption in education, unhealthy social media influences, and increased clinical awareness.”
Lead author Dr. Pearl Mok from the University of Manchester.
In contrast, there was no evidence of an increase in the rate of self-harm among females in the other age groups, and there was no increase in the rate of self-harm or eating disorders among males.
According to the findings of the study, for the ten years preceding the pandemic, women from more affluent communities were more likely to be diagnosed with eating disorders than women from less affluent communities.
Since the pandemic began, this disparity in socioeconomic status has grown: Females diagnosed with eating disorders have been 52% higher than anticipated since March 2020, compared to 22% higher diagnoses for those living in the most deprived areas.
In contrast to eating disorders, self-harm rates were higher in the most deprived areas during the ten years preceding the pandemic; however, in contrast to eating disorders, the socioeconomic disparities diminished rather than increased after March 2020.
In addition to being major health issues in and of themselves, self-harm and eating disorders share multiple risk factors and are coping mechanisms that frequently reveal underlying psychological distress.
“The reasons for the increase in eating disorder diagnoses and self-harm episodes among teenage girls during the pandemic are likely to be complex and could be due to a mixture of issues such as social isolation, anxiety resulting from changing routines, disruption in education, unhealthy social media influences, and increased clinical awareness,” stated lead author Dr. Pearl Mok of the University of Manchester.
“The rise in self-harm incidence may have been even greater than we observed because our study is large, but our data did not include episodes of self-harm that were not treated by health services. However, it’s also possible that self-harm cases that were not reported to services followed a different pattern.”
“We discovered that less deprived areas experienced a greater rise in eating disorders and self-harm than more deprived areas did. Rather than greater increases in risk for self-harm and eating disorders during the pandemic among those living in the least deprived communities, this may reflect differences in service provision and difficulties obtaining clinical care.”
An anonymized database of primary care electronic health records from 1881 UK general practices included over 9 million patients between the ages of 10 and 24.
From January 2010 to March 2022, roughly 10 years before the COVID-19 pandemic began and two years after it did, the researchers tracked the number of eating disorder diagnoses and self-harm reports made monthly by general practitioners.
From March 2020 to March 2022, the pandemic’s onset and rates of eating disorders and self-harm episodes were compared to predictions based on data from the previous ten years. The pandemic’s potential impact on outcome incidence was determined by comparing the observed and predicted numbers of cases.
The study was shaped and interpreted by a group of parents, caregivers, and young people who had lived experiences with mental health issues.
“The staggering rise in eating disorder diagnoses and self-harm episodes among teenage females highlights an urgent need to improve early access to services and for timely intervention,” stated co-investigator and child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Shruti Garg of The University of Manchester.
“Early identification of mental health difficulties in children and young people by primary care clinicians is extremely important because this facilitates timely access to treatments,” stated Prof. Carolyn Chew-Graham, academic GP and co-investigator from Keele University. However, GPs and mental health services must provide sufficient support to manage those who present. Given the ongoing tensions on the NHS, in both essential and expert consideration, our review underlines the requirement for adequate limits in psychological well-being administrations to satisfy developing needs.”
“We held regular meetings and communications throughout the project with the advisory group,” stated Emma Garavini, youth public involvement in research officer at the McPin Foundation and coordinator of the advisory group. The study’s inclusion of young people’s, parents’, and caregivers’ perspectives emphasizes the significance of and requirement for lived experience expertise in mental health research.
More information: Pearl Mok et al, The Lancet Child and Adolescent Health, (2023).
