Alexis Barkman

Historically, eating disorders have been attributed primarily to females, with research often excluding male participants. This has contributed to a general deficit in understanding of eating disorder symptoms and mechanisms in males, despite beliefs that eating disorder rates among males have increased over time. As such, the purpose of this secondary data analysis is to evaluate changes in the prevalence of eating disorders over time in males versus females. By looking at changes over time in Western countries versus non-Western countries, as well as specifically within the United States, this project also seeks to examine the influence of culture on eating disorders prevalence in males compared to females. Overall, findings indicate that total prevalence has increased over time for both males and females, although the gap in prevalence between males and females in the United States has widened over time. Furthermore, results show that eating disorders prevalence is significantly higher in Western countries compared to non-Western countries, with the gap in prevalence by sex being larger in Western countries than non-Western countries. Altogether, these findings indicate that eating disorders prevalence in males is increasing over time, supporting the idea that males should be included more frequently in eating disorders research. Additionally, these results show that culture (i.e. Western vs. non-Western) has a significant impact on eating disorders prevalence.