• Posted November 19, 2025

Eating Disorders Impact Health For Years, Researchers Find

Eating disorders can harm a person’s physical and mental health in ways that linger for years, a new study reports.

Anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and other such disorders bring with them a high risk of health problems like diabetes, kidney or liver failure, broken bones and premature death, researchers said.

This risk is sky-high within the first year of diagnosis with an eating disorder, but can persist for years afterward, researchers reported Nov. 18 in the journal BMJ Medicine.

“This study highlights the importance of ongoing monitoring for long term physical health outcomes in individuals with a history of eating disorders,” concluded the research team led by Catharine Morgan, an epidemiologist with the University of Manchester.

For the study, researchers analyzed medical records for more than 24,700 people ages 10 to 44 who were diagnosed with an eating disorder, comparing them with another 493,000 people who didn’t have eating disorders.

Results showed that within the first year of their diagnosis, people with eating disorders were:

• 6 times more likely to suffer kidney failure.

• Nearly 7 times more likely to develop liver disease.

• 6 times more likely to develop osteoporosis.

• Twice as likely to suffer heart failure.

• 3 times more likely to develop diabetes.

• 7 times more likely to have depression.

• More than 9 times as likely to self-harm.

• 14 times more likely to attempt suicide.

Overall, people with eating disorders had a more than fourfold greater risk for dying prematurely from any cause, and a fivefold greater risk of dying from unnatural causes like suicide. 

Some of these risks remained substantially higher years after their diagnosis for eating disorders, researchers found.

For example, the risk of kidney and liver disease remained 2.5 to 4 times higher after 5 years, researchers found, while the overall risk of premature death remained 2 to 3 times higher.

A decade after diagnosis, people with eating disorders still were dying at higher rates. For instance, their risk of suicide remained nearly 3 times higher after 10 years.

“Our data describe the substantial long-term effects of eating disorders and emphasize the potential opportunity for primary care to have a greater role in offering support and long-term monitoring for individuals who are recovering from an eating disorder,” researchers wrote.

”Raising awareness among healthcare providers about the lasting effects of eating disorders and the need for ongoing support in managing current symptoms and recovery is essential,” the team concluded.

In a editorial, researchers with McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, agreed with the team’s conclusions.

“Eating disorders affect millions of individuals worldwide, yet their consequences are under-recognized,” wrote the editorialists led by Jennifer Couturier, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at McMaster University.

“Multiple organ systems are affected by eating disorders, which then requires an integration of care to adequately treat patients,” the editorial team wrote. “This situation places primary care providers in an ideal position for leading and coordinating [their] care, and suggests that primary care settings would be apt for early and ongoing intervention.”

More information

The American Psychiatric Association has more on eating disorders.

SOURCES: BMJ, news release, Nov. 18, 2025; BMJ Medicine, Nov. 18, 2025