Eating disorder hospitalizations among Canadian youth rose during COVID-19 pandemic: data
Global News
Hospitals saw a spike in the number of youth hospitalized for eating disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic, new data from the Canadian Institute for Health Research reveal.
Canadian hospitals saw a spike in the number of youth hospitalized for eating disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic, new data from the Canadian Institute for Health Research reveal.
The numbers released Thursday show girls aged 10 to 17 with eating disorders were hospitalized nearly 60 per cent more following the onset of the pandemic.
The rate for this cohort went from 52 hospitalizations per 100,000 people in 2019-20 to 82 hospitalizations per 100,000 in 2020-21.
It paints a stark portrait of one facet of youth mental health across the country, experts say, noting that an eating disorder needs to be extremely severe to require hospitalization.
“That’s really the tip of the iceberg when it comes to young people with fairly significant eating disorders, because there are so many barriers to accessing care,” said Dr. Leanna Isserlin, psychiatric director of the child and adolescent eating disorders program at CHEO.
“And so many young people would never meet the criteria for hospitalization but … are still very unwell with their eating disorders.”
The rate of eating disorder hospitalizations for youth of all genders aged five to 24 in Canada was 20 per 100,000 in 2020-21, up from 15 per 100,000 in the two years leading up to the onset of the pandemic.
The data was drawn from the Discharge Abstract Database and Ontario Mental Health Reporting System.