‘QUARANTINE FIT’

More Boys Are Seeking Treatment for Eating Disorders, Doctors Tell WSJ

The pandemic and social media have led to an increase of eating disorders in general, and young men are seeking treatment more than they have in the past.

Pediatricians are seeing more boys with eating disorders, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal, countering the stereotype that it is a problem mostly affecting young women. Doctors say this is due in part to the pandemic, during which many people searched social media for tips on how to stay “quarantine fit,” and were served posts about diet culture and overexercising. The medical director of eating disorders at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, told the Journal that about 6 percent of her patients are male, compared to the 1 or 2 percent she saw before the pandemic. Another professor of pediatrics at Stanford University School of Medicine said about a third of patients in his unit are young men.