Costs associated with youth eating disorders reached $39.5 million during COVID pandemic, study suggests

Researchers at Ottawa's CHEO Research Lab are calling for a national surveillance strategy on eating disorders in Canada, as new statistics show a rise in the social and economic costs associated with the issue in children and youth.

The Deloitte Access Economics report says the incremental cost impact of children and youth with eating disorders reached $39.5 million during the COVID-19 pandemic. The report, led by the CHEO Research Institute, states the dollar figure is a "vast underestimate" of the true cost of eating disorders in Canada.

"This research highlights the urgent need to develop a robust surveillance system for eating disorders in Canada to ensure we are adequately capturing shifting needs in services and costs so that we can better manage eating disorder care," Dr. Nicole Obeid, scientist and lead of the Eating Disorders Lab at the CHEO Research Institute, said in a statement.

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Between 2020 and 2022, there was a 126 per cent increase in emergency department visits by children and youth with eating disorders and a 60 per cent increase in inpatient hospitalizations compared to the year before the COVID-19 pandemic.

The CHEO Research Institute says the COVID-19 pandemic increased financial stress, isolation and anxiety, "factors known to contribute to the development of eating disorder symptoms." According to researchers, only 20 per cent of young people living with an eating disorder seek treatment.

While the report says the impact of children and youth with eating disorders cost $39.5 million over two years, the figures don't represent the total costs.

"We can't manage what we can't measure," Obeid said. "Understanding the impacts and costs associated with eating disorders, especially in children and youth, is imperative to drive much-needed health system transformation planning."

The report notes due to a lack of surveillance data on eating disorders, not all components of the cost of care were accounted for, including the cost of standard eating disorder treatment programs such as day hospital programs, and support-based community eating disorder services.

In 2023, CHEO opened the first pediatric eating disorders partial hospitalization program in Canada. The program welcomes 12 patients with moderate to severe eating disorders daily, seven days a week for 12 hours a day and allows the patients to return home in the evening. 

The CHEO study group is hosting a meeting in Ottawa on Thursday with Canadian and international experts in eating disorder system transformation to discuss the findings of the report and identify an action plan.

"There is an opportunity for eating disorder experts and decision-makers to work together on a national surveillance strategy to propel much-needed, data-informed, system transformation efforts to improve eating disorder care for youth, families and clinicians," the CHEO Research Institute said.