Increased exposure to images of celebrity bodies is behind the large rise in the number of young girls admitted to British hospital with an eating disorder, a leading UK paediatrician has said.
Michie Colin, chairman of the nutrition committee at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, blamed the increase on children’s use of mobile phones and exposure to advertising, citing their ability to constantly look at images of celebrity bodies as a factor in eating disorder cases.
Colin said: “Adverts for children are a very powerful force. I think we have released a behemoth we cannot control. It’s not just peer pressure. Children do have a problem with food that is different to problems they had before.”
Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and overeating associated with other psychological disturbances were among the disorders recorded by Hospital Episode Statistics – a data warehouse which processes over 125 million patient records each year.
Adverts for children are a very powerful force
Statisticians at the British Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) said the general rise in hospital admissions and changes in data quality and coverage may have contributed to the increase, but were only a small factor.
HSCIC also released data showing that 15- to 19-year-old girls were more than twice as likely to be referred to psychological therapists than boys. Around 34,000 young women were referred in 2013-2014, compared to 16,000 young men.
The national report, which brought together statistics on health, care and well-being of young people in England from birth to young adulthood, also contained data on childhood obesity.
It released statistics showing a decrease in the number of children getting the recommended amount of exercise.
The percentage of boys aged 13 to 15 years old who got the recommended amount of exercise halved from 28 per cent in 2008 to 14 per cent in 2012. In girls, the figure fell from 14 to eight per cent over the same period.
The NHS recommend that children spend at least 60 minutes doing physical activity every day, with a mixture of moderate intensity activity (cycling and playground activities) and vigorous intensity activity (fast running and tennis).