March 11, 2021
Since the pandemic began, isolation, anxiety and hours upon hours of screen time have led to a surge in eating disorders among adolescents at the same time that health education has been cut back in classrooms.
According to the National Eating Disorders Association, calls to their hotline have increased 40% since March 2020. At UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospitals, hospitalizations for eating disorders have doubled.
And a study released last week by researchers at UC San Francisco shows that the more time students spend on social media or watching TV, the more likely they are to engage in uncontrolled eating, or bingeing.