WASHINGTON — A new study found that 3 percent of women in their 40s and 50s suffer from eating disorders, a figure higher than expected because eating disorders are primarily associated with women in their teens and 20s.
The study of 5,300 British women in their 40s and 50s found that 15 percent reported having an eating disorder at some point in their life, and 3 percent within the past year.
Figures vary, but research has found that approximately 1 percent of female adolescents and women in their 20s have anorexia, while 4 percent experience bulimia.
“Our study shows that eating disorders are not just confined to earlier decades of life, and that both chronic and new onset disorders are apparent in midlife,” said Dr. Nadia Micali, lead author from the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York and University College London.
Micali said many of the women who participated in the study reported this was the first time they had ever talked with a professional about their eating struggles.
“We need to understand why many women did not seek help,” said Micali. “It may be that there are some barriers women perceive in health care access or a lack of awareness among health care professionals.”
The researchers assessed factors that might have contributed to the onset of an eating disorder, including childhood happiness, parental divorce or separation, life events, relationship with parents and sexual abuse.
A woman’s risk of suffering from anorexia or bulimia increased if she reported being unhappy during childhood.
Conversely, a good mother-daughter relationship was associated with reducing the chance of developing bulimia by 20 percent.
The research used data from the women who participated in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children study, also known as Children of the 90s, and was published in the journal BMC Medicine.
