Epidemiology of disordered eating in an ethnically and socioeconomically diverse population of adolescents: Results from the Born in Bradford Age of Wonder cohort study

Disordered eating is a concern for public health and has become more common over the past 20 years, particularly during adolescence when eating disorders generally start. Whilst we know that the occurrence and risk of disordered eating varies by ethnicity and socioeconomic background in adults, more research is needed to determine the rates of disordered eating in diverse groups of adolescents and to identify changeable factors that may increase their risk.
This programme of work aims to address this gap by using a large ethnically and socioeconomically diverse sample of adolescents to 1) describe the prevalence of disordered eating, 2) investigate how the prevalence of disordered eating varies across different ethnic groups, sexes, ages, body weights and socioeconomic backgrounds, and 3) identify whether experiencing discrimination is a risk factor for disordered eating.
The findings from this project will help us better understand the prevalence of disordered eating in ethnically and socioeconomically diverse groups of adolescents and will contribute towards developing effective prevention strategies for disordered eating.