Epidemiology of Eating Disorders in East Asia

Eating disorders (EDs), Chinaepidemiological investigationInstead of being western-specific, eating disorders (EDs) are now global mental diseases around the world, including the East Asia. Modern research into eating disorders started from the 1980s in China and South Korea, but earlier in Japan from the 1950s. With higher levels of development back then, Japan took the lead in the scientific investigation of EDs. Back in 1980s, the prevalence of EDs in Japan was much lower than western developed countries. However, in the next 30 years, a rapidly increasing prevalence of EDs had been observed in Japan and has remained relatively stable in recent years. Likewise, increasing reported epidemiological prevalence of EDs was also found in China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan) and South Korea in the past 30 years. Especially in China, which is a vast and populous country, a growing number of ED patients have been reported from communities, especially in schools. Moreover, the prevalence of EDs varies among cities in China. However, no existing study of EDs is found in either North Korea or Mongolia. Considering the subtypes of ED, anorexia nervosa (AN) was mainly studied in the early years. With the development of diagnosis criteria, more subtypes of EDs were investigated and increasingly identified in recent years. Overall, young females are regarded as the high-risk population to EDs among almost every country of East Asia. The gender of patients with EDs and related disturbances has been shown to be predominantly female. Besides, urban areas which have higher economic status usually correspond to a higher prevalence of EDs, except for South Korea, where the results are still uncertain. Westernization appears to be an essential reason for the growth of EDs in East Asia while sociocultural factors such as collectivism also play an important role in this issue.