[Has conspicuous eating behavior become more common among adolescents and adults between 2013 and 2024? Comparison of data from two representative surveys in Germany].

The study investigates whether conspicuous eating behavior has increased in adolescents and adults in Germany between 2013 and 2024. The reason for this was the assumption that the frequency of such behaviors is increasing in the population, influenced by social, media and diagnostic developments. The study compares representative data from these two years in order to analyze changes in the prevalence of conspicuous eating behavior.Nationwide representative surveys were conducted for the study in 2013 and 2024. The "Eating Attitudes Test" (EAT-8) was used, a short version of the EAT26D, which has been validated for the self-reporting of conspicuous eating behavior. A total of 2527 participants were interviewed in 2013 and 2569 in 2024. The analysis includes stratification by gender and age groups and takes into account gender-specific thresholds for identifying conspicuous eating behavior.The proportion of women with conspicuous eating behavior increased from 32.1% in 2013 to 35.2% in 2024, while a decrease from 26.2% to 25.1% was recorded for men. The increase is particularly striking among women in the age groups under 20 (+9.8%) and between 50 and 59 (+7.0%). For women aged between 20 and 29, however, the frequency of conspicuous eating behavior is declining (- 4.1%). Men under 30 years of age showed a slight decline, but there was an increase of 8.5% in men over 70 years of age.Conspicuous eating behavior is still significantly more common among women in younger age groups than among men. These gender-specific differences are in line with previous findings. The increase in younger women and female adolescents in particular could reflect the after-effects of the coronavirus pandemic, as health insurance data and self-reported data from national and international online surveys suggest an increase in conspicuous eating behavior, especially during lockdowns. The heterogeneous age-group-specific findings speak in favor of a stronger age-related consideration of the risk of eating disorders in the future.Care services should increasingly target specific age groups and genders in order to effectively combat the spread of eating disorders.