Parents lag behind when identifying teen eating disorders, according to a new study. The findings suggest parents should monitor teen eating habits more closely.
Researchers can’t yet pinpoint definitive reasons, though they surmise it was a combination of factors, including stress, an outsized focus on weight gain and personal appearance, and maybe even symptoms of COVID-19 itself. Shortly after the pandemic began, Kelly Allison started hearing more and more professional chatter about a worrying increase in hospitalizations for eating disorders. “It was a big topic of conversation,” says Allison, who runs Penn’s Center for Weight and Eating Disorders. The media had also begun reporting on this trend. Around the same time, a group of researchers from Penn Medicine’s Center for Health Care Innovation (CHCI),Researchers can’t yet pinpoint definitive reasons, though they surmise it was a combination of factors, including stress, an outsized focus on weight gain and personal appearance, and maybe even symptoms of COVID-19 itself. Shortly after the pandemic began, Kelly Allison started hearing more and more professional chatter about a w