Eating disorder rates troubling in gay, lesbian, bisexual youth: study

Risk is higher for girls, research shows

VANCOUVER — A University of British Columbia study says gay, lesbian and bisexual youth are continuing to purge, fast and take diet pills or laxatives to lose weight while the rates for such behaviour among heterosexuals are going down.

Research involving 26,000 students in Massachusetts suggests lesbian and bisexual girls are even worse off than their male counterparts, and the results are the same as a larger and yet-to-be published British Columbia survey.

Lead researcher Ryan Watson, a postdoctoral fellow at the university’s school of nursing, says healthy eating programs that seem to be working for straight youth haven’t reached lesbian, gay and bisexual kids.

The Massachusetts study of Grades 9 to 12 students includes 14 years of data and says that in 2013, lesbians were twice as likely to report purging and fasting than they were in 1999.

The study published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders says that in comparison, eight per cent of heterosexual girls reported purging in 1999, but the rate went down to five per cent in 2013.

Watson says it’s not known why there’s such a disparity among the different groups of youth, but it’s clear that sexual minority kids need targeted programs to prevent eating disorders.