Pro-Eating Disorder Web Sites Encourage Unhealthy Behaviors
Anorexia, bulimia, and other eating disorders can be worsened by “encouragement” offered on pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia web sites, according to researchers from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Stanford University School of Medicine.
The researchers have analyzed how these eating disorder web sites allow young people, mostly but not exclusively female, to encourage each other in unhealthy behaviors. The researchers rated each of the sites in terms of how harmful the sites would be to their users.
There is a wide mix of kinds of pro-eating disorder web sites, according to lead researcher physician Rebecka Peebles. Some focus on providing information on how to intensify your eating disorder; others mix such information with more positive information on recovery, and some focus primarily on pro-recovery information.
The researchers analyzed 180 web sites that encourage anorexia and bulimia. The sites offer interactive features, including calorie counters and discussion boards. They also feature images of extremely thin models and actresses in a category dubbed “thinspiration” and extensive discussion of tips and techniques for weight loss.
Ironically, most of the sites recognized that bulimia and anorexia are diseases. Dr. Peebles noted that the conflicted impressions given by these web sites are probably the result of the mixed feelings that are held by patients with eating disorders. Because the online communities allow individuals to reflect their personal feelings about either getting better or persisting in their unhealthy behaviors, the sites do the same.
The authors of the study say it is critical for doctors and family members of patients with anorexia or bulimia to be aware of how easy it is for patients to find and use these sites and how dangerous they may be in reinforcing problematic eating behaviors.
A simple way to think about the danger of such sites is to imagine how worrisome it would be to have a group of five or six young women who all the same eating disorder spending a lot of time together, and then recognize that online communities can allow many hundreds of people who all share the same disorder to come together and influence one another, for good or for bad.
The study appears in the issue of the American Journal of Public Health released earlier this week.