Self-reported eating disorder psychopathology prevalence in community-based female and male Albertans: Gender and age group comparisons.

OBJECTIVE

We describe and compare eating disorder (ED) psychopathology prevalence in Canadian females and males across five age groups.

METHOD

This secondary data analysis study used the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) to assess ED psychopathology in 1,316 Alberta community-based female and male participants, aged 15 to 71.

RESULTS

Overall, 15.3% of female and 8.2% of male participants reported clinically-significant ED disturbances. Female participants reported greater global ED psychopathology than male participants, except older men and women aged 65-71, who reported similar, relatively low levels of global ED psychopathology. Women aged 65-71 endorsed less global ED psychopathology than younger females. More females than males reported regular binge eating and self-induced vomiting, whereas other ED behaviors were endorsed at similar rates.

DISCUSSION

This large-scale study, the first involving a Canadian sample, contributes to a small literature on ED psychopathology in community-based samples. The finding that 15% of female and 8% of male Albertans aged 15 to 71 endorsed clinically-significant ED disturbances is concerning; however, women aged 65-71 reported lower ED psychopathology than younger females. Gender and age differences were observed in global ED psychopathology. Routine ED screening of non-clinical adolescents and adults is warranted to permit prevention and early intervention.