In the first few months after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, pediatric hospitals in high-income countries began to report substantial increases in acute presentations of eating disorders. These findings were important because ED admissions or visits before the pandemic had generally stagnated or decreased.
To understand how eating disorders are presenting in Ontario, researchers used the linked health administrative databases available at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Ontario. They conducted a population-based repeated cross-sectional study. This type of study follows participants at a single point in time. The researchers looked at acute care visits for eating disorders among Ontario children and adolescents from 2017 to 2020.
To learn about their findings, read our plain-language summary.