Stereotypes that eating disorders are something that happens to thin white women may be leading to Maori missing out on timely treatment.
That’s a hypothesis clinical psychologist and Victoria University lecturer Gloria Fraser is drawing from a University of Auckland study that found hospital admissions for eating disorders went up by 50 percent during Covid-19 lockdowns – with wahine Maori disproportionately affected.
Dr Fraser, who chairs the national Māori eating disorders network Te Tira Wānanga Māuiui Kai, says Maori are over-represented in eating disorders because of greater exposure to risk factors, such as food insecurity and stressful life events.
Hospital admissions represent the more severe end of eating disorders.
“So it also might be we’re not being screened or referred for eating disorder treatment early, and that may be because of a lot of myths and stereotypes about who has an eating disorder, this assumption it’s only thin white women who experience eating disorders when in reality people of all ethnicities, body shapes, sized, colours can experience an eating disorder,” Dr Fraser says.
She says the identification and management of eating disorders should be part of planning for future pandemics.
