A sharp increase in young people hospitalized with eating disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic has returned to pre-pandemic levels, according to a cross-sectional study of U.S. pediatric hospitals. The study included 8- to 25-year-olds hospitalized for eating disorders at 41 pediatric hospitals across the country.
Eating disorder-related hospital discharges among this age group increased by an average of 30.9 per month through the first year of the pandemic, peaking at about 600 per month across the 41 hospitals, reported researchers from Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School in JAMA Pediatrics. However, after April 2021, eating disorder-related hospitalizations remained stable or modestly declined. A sharp drop in October 2024 brought the volume back to a level statistically indistinguishable from the pre-pandemic period, averaging roughly 350 per month through June 2025.
Pre-Pandemic Baseline and Current Levels
Before the pandemic, eating disorder-related hospitalizations showed a fairly stable trajectory with a nonsignificant increase of 1.92 discharges per month. A brief decline occurred in April 2020 of 59.8 discharges per month before the sharp pandemic-driven increase began.
Overall, there were 43,101 eating disorder-related hospital discharges among young people during the entire study period. Approximately 85% of individuals included in the study were female, with an average age of 15.4 years. The research team compared aggregated monthly volumes of eating disorder-related discharges before the pandemic (January 2018-March 2020) to five years afterward (through June 2025).
Remaining Questions
The researchers acknowledged they were “unable to determine the mechanism underlying the return to prepandemic volumes, including the notable decrease in the fall of 2024.” The findings may reflect changes in eating disorder prevalence, changes in severity, new access points like expanded telehealth services, or changes in admission criteria during the pandemic. Because the study focused mainly on large academic institutions, findings may not be generalizable to all hospitals. The researchers concluded that “further research is needed to characterize post-onset patterns in eating disorder severity, phenotype and demographic characteristics,” as well as changes in the treatment landscape.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.medpagetoday.com/pediatrics/eatingdisorders/120439