To start this Eating Disorders Awareness Week, we
would like to share some initial findings from our survey on food insecurity in
people with eating disorders.
However, before we dive into these results, what is
food insecurity? Food insecurity is defined as a lack of consistent access to a
sufficient amount of nutritious food, and, experiences range from mild food
insecurity (e.g., uncertainty about acquiring food) to more severe forms where
individuals have no food for at least a day. In the UK, work by charities, such
as The Food Foundation, suggests that around 14% of households experience moderate
to severe levels of food insecurity. Additionally, the findings from their most
recent YouGov survey indicate that experiences of food insecurity are
particularly acute among individuals with mental health diagnoses.
Recent work by the
EDIFY team has looked at how knowledgeable
healthcare professionals are about the impact of food insecurity on eating
disorder treatment. This survey showed that while healthcare professionals were
aware of a rise in food insecurity in their patients, they felt they
lacked the necessary resources to support them. These findings suggest that
inadequate access to food is a notable issue for patients with eating
disorders, but importantly, this study lacks the perspectives and experiences
of patients themselves.
A
complementary survey, conducted from June 2023 to July 2024, aimed to
understand the food insecurity experiences of people diagnosed with or
suspected of having an eating disorder. It also explored their experiences
seeking help for their food insecurity from healthcare professionals and their
suggestions for improving the current guidelines in healthcare settings. We
collected responses from 337 participants between the ages of 16 and 67.
From these responses, we observed that around 42% of
our participants had experienced at least 1 of the 5 assessed forms of food
insecurity, with 14% of the sample having experienced 3 or more forms in the
last month. Additionally, most participants had never been asked about their
experiences of food insecurity by a healthcare professional (89%), with even
more participants never reaching out for help with their food insecurity in a
healthcare setting (92%).
Participants mentioned various reasons as to why they
never sought help. For example, some participants stated that they were
embarrassed or felt ashamed of their food insecurity experiences and even
guilty about the idea of using resources to access food, such as food banks.
Other participants thought that the form of food insecurity that they faced was
not severe enough to talk about in a healthcare setting, or that these settings
were not the appropriate place for such discussions. Additionally, participants
were put off by the idea that healthcare professionals would offer little more
than their commiserations about their food insecurity.
However, participants also provided feedback on how
they think guidance for health professionals can be improved and what has
helped/ would help them to talk about their food insecurity experiences. Overwhelmingly,
participants wanted healthcare professionals to be empathetic and knowledgeable
about the ways that food insecurity and eating disorders interact, as well as for
these professionals to take the initiative in starting the conversation about
food insecurity. In addition to this, their suggestions for guidance mainly
related to wanting a secure environment to have discussions with healthcare
professionals, practical resources on how they could alleviate their food
insecurity, and greater awareness of the impacts of food insecurity.
The findings from our survey suggest that there is a
high rate of food insecurity among people with eating disorders and that the
available channels for help need to be improved. In light of these findings, we
have collated the responses from this survey to create a short animated film in
collaboration with the animation studio Woven Ink. The video will form part of
a training tool to inform healthcare professionals about the impact of food
insecurity on people with eating disorders. You can watch the animation by
clicking on the video below or by using the link here.
We would like to thank everyone who took the time to
respond to our survey. This work would not be possible without your invaluable
contribution.
