You asked
I would like to know the number of people who have been diagnosed with an eating disorder of any kind, each year, for the past 5 years in the UK.
I would like to know how many people have died from an eating disorder of any kind, every year, for the past 3 years in the UK.
I would like to know which mental disorder had the highest death rate in 2019 in the UK.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for the production of Mortality data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
1. I would like to know the number of people who have been diagnosed with an eating disorder of any kind, each year, for the past 5 years in the UK.
Unfortunately, we do not hold data on mental health disorders or eating disorders or have access to patient treatment plans.
However, you may find the following link to a project by NHS Digital, as this is regarding the mental health of children and young people: https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2020-wave-1-follow-up.
NHS Digital may be better placed to assist with your enquiry further. They can be contacted via email at: enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.
2. I would like to know how many people have died from an eating disorder of any kind, every year, for the past 3 years in the UK.
Cause of death is coded using Version 10 of the International classification of diseases (ICD-10). Deaths with an underlying cause of eating disorder would be assigned the ICD-10 code F50 https://icd.who.int/browse10/2014/en#/F50. This includes the following conditions:
- Anorexia Nervosa - F50.0
- Atypical Anorexia Nervosa - F50.1
- Bulimia Nervosa - F50.2
- Atypical Bulimia Nervosa - F50.3
- Overeating associated with other psychological disturbances - F50.4
- Vomiting associated with other psychological disturbances - F50.5
- Other eating disorders - F50.8
- Eating disorder, unspecified - F50.9
Deaths from eating disorders in the past three years is provided in the table below, and is also available through the following NOMIS explorable dataset: https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/query/select/getdatasetbytheme.asp?theme=73.
| Cause of death | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| F50 Eating disorders | 23 | 25 | 18 |
| F50.0 Anorexia nervosa | 16 | 22 | 15 |
| F50.1 Atypical anorexia nervosa | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| F50.2 Bulimia nervosa | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| F50.3 Atypical bulimia nervosa | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| F50.4 Overeating associated with other psychological disturbances | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| F50.5 Vomiting associated with other psychological disturbances | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| F50.8 Other eating disorders | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| F50.9 Eating disorder, unspecified | 3 | 3 | 3 |
Download this table Mortality statistics – underlying causes, sex and age
.xls .csv3. I would like to know which mental disorder had the highest death rate in 2019 in the UK.
In order to fulfil this request, we would need to create bespoke analysis as the information is not held in the requested format. Information on deaths involving mental disorders, along with other special extracts and tabulations of mortality data for England and Wales are available to order. Such services would be subject to legal frameworks, disclosure controls, resources and agreement of costs, where appropriate. If you would like to request this bespoke dataset, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk to discuss your enquiry further. Please note, there may be a charge for this work which would be subject to our charging policy.