Chapter 11: Eating Disorders in Asian Americans: Addressing Racism and Other Contextual Considerations in Care

While long considered disorders that primarily affected affluent, young White women, there is a growing understanding that eating disorders can and do affect people of all ethnicities, nationalities, genders and gender identities, ages, or body sizes. Using data from the NIMH Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiological Studies (CPES), Marques and colleagues (2011) found (a) no significant differences in the prevalence rates of anorexia nervosa across all ethnic groups that were studied, (b) significantly higher prevalence rates of bulimia nervosa in Latino and African American groups, and (c) significantly higher prevalence rates of binge eating disorder for all ethnic groups studied. Even though eating disorder prevalence rates were similar or greater than those of their White peers, people in ethnic minority groups with a lifetime history of any eating disorders were significantly less likely to utilize mental health services than their non-Latino White peers. The authors emphasized that these data represent an important need in communities of color that is currently going unmet—namely, a need for providers to better understand the specific experiences of communities of color.