Eating Disorders Awareness Week 2025

Dr Amy Harrison, UCL

Funded by the Foundation, Dr Amy Harrison from UCL has been exploring the role of decision-making in eating disorder development. Her research has shown, for the first time, that decision-making skills in childhood are associated with eating disorder symptoms in adolescence. This new knowledge could pave the way for innovative prevention tools, which could benefit thousands of young people and their families.

Commenting on the prevalence of eating disorders, Amy says:

“We believe eating disorders are increasing overall, but also in groups that we maybe haven't known as much about before. We've often only thought about eating disorders in girls and women, but we know that more men are coming forward with symptoms. They're also affecting people across the lifespan.

The problem is people getting access to support and care. There is a gap between knowing you have the symptoms, seeking support, and actually getting an assessment, diagnosis, then treatment. There can be lots of inequalities and barriers there. One group this impacts the most is ethnic groups. Community-based data shows that eating disorder symptoms are present in all ethnic groups, whereas in services and clinical settings, there are fewer ethnic minority groups.

A possible reason for this is stigma. Whether that's how other people might perceive you, or even how you might perceive yourself, your own personal, internalised stigma. Because eating disorders have largely affected women, the stigma hasn't decreased as much as in other mental health difficulties."

Read more about Amy’s Foundation-funded project >>

Professor Gerome Breen, King’s College London

Funded by the Foundation, Professor Gerome Breen is working alongside teams at King’s College London to establish a UK-wide NHS research network spanning child and adult eating disorder services. He aims to facilitate new research collaborations to develop better care pathways and treatments across NHS eating disorder services.

In an unrelated study exploring the age of onset of eating disorders in the UK, Gerome’s team discovered that eating disorders are as likely to start in adulthood as childhood. The study highlights the need for a greater range of services, including those aimed at people who first experience eating disorder symptoms later in life.

Gerome says, “There is a tendency to see eating disorders as mental health conditions that primarily start in childhood or adolescence. However, our study indicates that there are just as many people who experience eating disorders for the first time as adults. This in no way takes away from the absolute importance of addressing eating disorders in young people, but it does indicate that we need to think more broadly about the range of people affected by eating disorders and their different needs.”

The report uses data from the UK Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI UK) and Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) studies, led by researchers at King’s College London. Both are funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR BioResource. The report is published in collaboration with the eating disorder charity, Beat.

Read the full report here >>

Read more about Prof Breen’s Foundation-funded work here >>

Dr Zuo Zhang, King's College London

Dr Zuo Zhang from King’s College London is using Foundation funding to better understand the risk factors, causes, and interconnections between eating disorders, using machine learning. Through this work, Zuo aims to help detect people at risk earlier, and to aid earlier intervention.

Commenting on underrepresented groups in eating disorder research, Zuo adds:

"Eating disorders in men and older people are less common than in women and young people. However, studies have shown that men account for up to a third of people diagnosed with a binge eating disorder, and ARFID affects as many males as females, if not more.

In addition, the peak prevalence of eating disorders occurs during adolescence and early adulthood, but their age distribution is broad, spanning from childhood to older ages. Compared to anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder tends to have a later peak onset and is more commonly seen in adults.

Eating disorders in men and older people are often underdiagnosed due to factors such as gender- and age-related stigma, differences in symptom presentation, and reduced awareness. There is a pressing need for improved awareness, assessment, and tailored interventions for men and older people experiencing eating disorders."

Read more about Zuo's Foundation-funded research here >>

Dr Dawn Branley-Bell, Northumbria University

Dr Dawn Branley-Bell, Associate Professor at Northumbria University, is leading a three-year research programme titled, ‘Remote Healthcare for Eating Disorders throughout COVID-19 (RHED–C)’, funded by the Foundation. The RHED-C project explores the benefits and challenges of providing online healthcare for eating disorders and eating distress and identifies future support recommendations.

Dawn comments on her team’s recent work in examining the UK’s policy framework surrounding eating disorder services:

“We are calling for more specific guidance around eating disorder (ED) service provision, including inclusive support for marginalised and underserved communities who often experience additional barriers to accessing treatment and support.

There is evidence of disparities in support for people from minority ethnic backgrounds, partly due to services being slow to recognise the prevalence of EDs within specific communities of ethnicity or cultural backgrounds, with minimal understanding of relevant cultural factors when supporting a patient with both their diagnosis and recovery.

Young people with minority sexual orientations and/or gender identities can also be more susceptible to EDs. This may be influenced by discrimination such as homophobia or transphobia. Furthermore, men with EDs are also often underserved by services due to persistent misconceptions that EDs ‘only affect women’. This can lead to gaps in service provision and reduced likelihood of men seeking support."

Read more about Dawn’s remote healthcare project for people with eating disorders >>

Dr Samuel Chawner, Cardiff University

From Cardiff University, Dr Samuel Chawner is a Senior Research Fellow investigating the understudied eating disorder, Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID). With funding from us, Sam is also studying two rare genetic conditions that can cause eating disorders in children and adolescents. His work extends from mental health data science to lived experience, including the voices of public, clinical and policy stakeholders to shape and drive meaningful impact.

Sam explains, "Thanks to the generous funding of a Medical Research Foundation Eating Disorders Fellowship, I have been able to study the intersection of rare genetic conditions, neurodivergence and eating disorders - providing new insights into eating disorders in groups currently underrepresented in research.

As part of my Foundation Fellowship, I focused on Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), which has now led to an 8-year Wellcome Trust Career Development Award investigating the epidemiology and aetiology of ARFID. As part of this, I will be examining the epidemiology of ARFID in the Born in Bradford cohort. An ARFID questionnaire has been included in the Born in Bradford Age of Wonder data collection which invite all teenagers living in Bradford to complete the assessment.

Importantly, the Born in Bradford cohort has a unique socio-demographic composition: two-thirds of participants are from the most deprived quintile in the UK and more than half from ethnic minority backgrounds. This will allow the study of populations historically excluded from eating disorder research."

Read more about the Born in Bradford 'Age of Wonder' study here >>

Read more about Sam's Foundation-funded work here >>

Prof Francesca Solmi & Jane Hahn, UCL

Funded by the Foundation, Prof Francesca Solmi is working to improve the data available on eating disorders in the general population, using the Age of Wonder Cohort, a large study of 30,000 adolescents. She aims to gain a better understanding of eating disorders and design effective preventative interventions.

More recently, alongside other UCL colleagues like Jane Hahn, Francesca is exploring the impact of socioeconomic status on eating disorders.

Francesca and Jane summarise the findings of their new study:

"Register-based studies suggest eating disorders are more common among those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. However, our findings show that adolescents who experienced childhood socioeconomic deprivation have higher rates of eating disorder symptoms.

Among socioeconomic factors, low parental education and financial hardship (e.g., struggling to afford material goods) are strongly linked to these symptoms and should be considered in prevention strategies.

The contrast between register-based studies and our findings suggests that adolescents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds face greater barriers to diagnosis. Factors such as stigma, the perception of eating disorders as a "disease of affluence," and clinicians' biases—especially toward individuals with higher BMIs—may contribute to lower help-seeking and diagnosis rates.

Eating disorders can affect anyone, regardless of socioeconomic status. To improve outcomes, we must develop interventions that better support those who are less likely to seek help or receive a diagnosis."

See the pre-print study here (currently under-review) >>

Read more about Francesca's Foundation-funded work here >>