From stopgap to opportunity: outcomes across age groups in an intentionally designed, remote eating disorder treatment program.

Abstract

Telehealth-based intermediate level of care programs for eating disorders largely yield comparable outcomes to in-person settings. However, extant research is primarily based on programs that transitioned to virtual formats in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, rather than those intentionally designed for remote delivery. Additional research is needed to evaluate programs specifically created for telehealth environments (i.e. intentionally-remote) and to understand how outcomes vary across age groups. In this retrospective chart review, clinical outcomes at end-of-treatment for 116 patients enrolled in an intentionally-remote eating disorder treatment program were analyzed, including eating disorder symptomatology, quality of life impairment, depressive symptoms, trait anxiety, body mass index, and percentage of ideal body weight. Mixed ANOVAs revealed significant improvements (ps < .001) from admission to discharge across all outcomes with large effects and no interaction by age, suggesting similar effectiveness across groups. By discharge, mean eating disorder symptomatology scores were below the clinical cut-off, quality of life impairment was within the minor to moderate range, depressive symptoms were mild, and weight restoration benchmarks were achieved for all age groups. While these findings support the potential of remote care as an accessible means of offering effective eating disorder treatment, further research is needed to determine generalizability to diverse populations, assess the impact of program features, and examine longitudinal outcomes.