An Anthropological Approach to Eating Disorders: Developing an Innovative Socio-cultural Strategy for Research, Treatment and Prevention

We propose a novel collaboration to undertake a coordinated set of needs-led capacity building, networking, and research activities, all underpinned by anthropological theory and method and with co-production at their core.

There are gaps in knowledge regarding the experiences, and both social and clinical needs, of specific groups of people affected by eating disorders; this includes those with certain eating disorder diagnoses, such as BED, OSFED and ARFID; people living with an eating disorder and another mental health challenge, such as self-harm; and individuals across a range of socio-demographic groups: older people; males; those from ethnic minorities and migrants; people with neurodivergence; those of different social classes; and individuals who identify as LGBTQ+. These knowledge gaps hinder the design of appropriate and effective prevention strategies and clinical services.

To address these gaps requires two key things: that research priorities be defined, and research undertaken, in collaboration with people with lived experience, especially those underserved by eating disorders research to date; and that the field include disciplinary approaches that have fallen outside traditional funding streams and paradigms of clinically-relevant evidence in eating disorders, but which have the potential to generate insights that are crucial to prevention, treatment and outcomes.

Specifically, these current knowledge gaps require an approach that can engage with the heterogeneity of lived experiences and explore how socio-cultural contexts, and social and mental health inequalities, shape illness and health experiences, service access and engagements, and thus outcomes. Anthropology is ideally placed to answer this call.

Drawing together anthropological research with sustained and meaningful co-production will engender both pilot research and also a new research agenda. Led by the lived experiences, needs and priorities of people who have been largely overlooked in the eating disorders research field, this agenda will have clinical relevance beyond the duration of this funding.

Our focus, then, is not just on doing anthropological research; we also seek to reflect on how to integrate anthropology into the research field, and build on it in order to contribute to improving the lives of those with eating disorders and their families. Through this project we thereby aim to collaboratively and ethically instigate a much-needed step change in eating disorders research.

To undergird this aim, it is necessary to sustainably build capacity in the eating disorders research field and work collaboratively across boundaries. We will put in place robust frameworks to support people with lived experience and early career academics to become research leaders. In addition, we will undertake networking activities based on equitable knowledge exchange and resource sharing among local and national lived experience communities, academics, clinicians and other stakeholders.

Through these collaborations we aim that this project will redress current geographical imbalances in the UK eating disorders research field and increase regional capacity. This will lay the ground for a future Midlands-based interdisciplinary eating disorders research centre.

We propose a novel collaboration to undertake capacity building, networking and research activities, all underpinned by anthropological theory and method and with co-production at their core.

The recent APPG report (2021) highlighted a lack of knowledge about the lived experiences and needs of people with certain eating disorder diagnoses, those with comorbidities, and across socio-demographic groups. These gaps hinder the design of appropriate and effective prevention strategies and clinical services.

Addressing them requires two key things: that research priorities be defined, and research undertaken, in collaboration with people with lived experiences underserved by research to date; and that the field include disciplinary approaches outside traditional funding streams and paradigms of clinically-relevant evidence in eating disorders, which have the potential to generate insights crucial to prevention, treatment and outcomes.

Specifically, we need an approach that engages with the heterogeneity of lived experiences and explores how socio-cultural contexts, and social and mental health inequalities shape illness and health experiences, service access and engagements, and thus outcomes.

Anthropology is ideally placed to answer this call. By bringing it together with co-production, the project will undertake pilot research and also forge a new research agenda. Led by the experiences and priorities of people with lived experience largely overlooked in research to date, this agenda will have clinical relevance beyond the duration of this funding.

The project will also sustainably build capacity in the eating disorders research field and undertake networking activities based on knowledge exchange among lived experience communities, academics, clinicians and other stakeholders. In so doing, it will instigate a much-needed step change in ED research and lay the ground for a future Midlands-based interdisciplinary eating disorders research centre.