Why Young People With Eating Disorder Symptoms Do Not Seek Help-Exploring Barriers to Help-Seeking.

IF 4.3 2区医学 Q1 NUTRITION & DIETETICS

International Journal of Eating Disorders Pub Date : 2025-08-12 DOI:10.1002/eat.24515

Johanna Stadler, Markus Moessner, Katja Becker, Alisa Hiery, Silke Diestelkamp, Heike Eschenbeck, Vera Gillé, Michael Kaess, Julian Koenig, Christine Rummel-Kluge, Elisabeth Kohls, Rainer Thomasius, Stephanie Bauer

{"title":"Why Young People With Eating Disorder Symptoms Do Not Seek Help-Exploring Barriers to Help-Seeking.","authors":"Johanna Stadler, Markus Moessner, Katja Becker, Alisa Hiery, Silke Diestelkamp, Heike Eschenbeck, Vera Gillé, Michael Kaess, Julian Koenig, Christine Rummel-Kluge, Elisabeth Kohls, Rainer Thomasius, Stephanie Bauer","doi":"10.1002/eat.24515","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Objective: Rates of help-seeking and treatment uptake are low in eating disorders. Delayed initiation of treatment has a negative impact on prognosis and treatment outcome and leads to a higher burden on the healthcare system. The aim of this study was to explore factors associated with help-seeking and their interactions in a large sample of adolescents and young adults with current symptoms of an eating disorder.Methods: Based on the Classification and Regression Trees (CART) algorithm, the data collected within the German school-based project ProHEAD (N = 9796; age: 12-25 years) were used to estimate a decision tree to classify students into help-seekers and non-help-seekers for a mental health issue.Results: Of those screened, 13% reported substantial current eating disorder symptoms (N = 1273). Out of those, 77.3% reported that they did not seek formal help (i.e., from a mental health professional). The absence of suicidal ideation and emotional problems, as well as a low level of education and openness to mental health issues, was characteristic of those who did not seek help for a mental health problem. Emotional problems, suicidality, and depressive symptoms were identified as the most important factors associated with general help-seeking.Discussion: In line with previous research, our findings indicate that individuals with eating disorder symptoms are more likely to seek help when other mental health issues are present. Public health efforts should aim to promote awareness and increase knowledge of eating disorders.","PeriodicalId":51067,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Eating Disorders","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":4.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"International Journal of Eating Disorders","FirstCategoryId":"3","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.24515","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"NUTRITION & DIETETICS","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objective: Rates of help-seeking and treatment uptake are low in eating disorders. Delayed initiation of treatment has a negative impact on prognosis and treatment outcome and leads to a higher burden on the healthcare system. The aim of this study was to explore factors associated with help-seeking and their interactions in a large sample of adolescents and young adults with current symptoms of an eating disorder.

Methods: Based on the Classification and Regression Trees (CART) algorithm, the data collected within the German school-based project ProHEAD (N = 9796; age: 12-25 years) were used to estimate a decision tree to classify students into help-seekers and non-help-seekers for a mental health issue.

Results: Of those screened, 13% reported substantial current eating disorder symptoms (N = 1273). Out of those, 77.3% reported that they did not seek formal help (i.e., from a mental health professional). The absence of suicidal ideation and emotional problems, as well as a low level of education and openness to mental health issues, was characteristic of those who did not seek help for a mental health problem. Emotional problems, suicidality, and depressive symptoms were identified as the most important factors associated with general help-seeking.

Discussion: In line with previous research, our findings indicate that individuals with eating disorder symptoms are more likely to seek help when other mental health issues are present. Public health efforts should aim to promote awareness and increase knowledge of eating disorders.

查看原文本刊更多论文

为什么有饮食失调症状的年轻人不寻求帮助-探索寻求帮助的障碍。

目的：进食障碍患者寻求帮助和接受治疗的比例较低。延迟开始治疗对预后和治疗结果有负面影响，并导致卫生保健系统负担加重。本研究的目的是在大量有饮食失调症状的青少年和年轻人中探索与寻求帮助相关的因素及其相互作用。方法：采用分类回归树（CART）算法，对德国校本项目ProHEAD (N = 9796；年龄：12-25岁)用于估计决策树，将学生分为寻求帮助和不寻求帮助的心理健康问题。结果：在接受筛查的人群中，13%的人报告了目前明显的饮食失调症状（N = 1273）。其中，77.3%的人报告说，他们没有寻求正式的帮助（即从精神卫生专业人员那里）。没有自杀意念和情绪问题，受教育程度低，对心理健康问题的态度开放，是那些不寻求心理健康问题帮助的人的特点。情绪问题、自杀倾向和抑郁症状被确定为与一般求助相关的最重要因素。讨论：与之前的研究一致，我们的发现表明，当出现其他心理健康问题时，有饮食失调症状的个体更有可能寻求帮助。公共卫生工作的目标应该是提高对饮食失调的认识和增加知识。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

International Journal of Eating Disorders 医学-精神病学

CiteScore

10.00

自引率

12.70%

发文量

204

审稿时长

4-8 weeks

期刊介绍： Articles featured in the journal describe state-of-the-art scientific research on theory, methodology, etiology, clinical practice, and policy related to eating disorders, as well as contributions that facilitate scholarly critique and discussion of science and practice in the field. Theoretical and empirical work on obesity or healthy eating falls within the journal’s scope inasmuch as it facilitates the advancement of efforts to describe and understand, prevent, or treat eating disorders. IJED welcomes submissions from all regions of the world and representing all levels of inquiry (including basic science, clinical trials, implementation research, and dissemination studies), and across a full range of scientific methods, disciplines, and approaches.