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Abstract

Objective
We examine the test accuracy of the Development and Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA) eating disorder screening items to explore whether the increased eating difficulties detected in the English National Mental Health of Children and Young People (MHCYP) Surveys 2021 reflect an increased population prevalence.

Methods
Study 1 calculated sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values from responses to the DAWBA screening items from 4057 11–19-year-olds and their parents, in the 2017 MHCYP survey. Study 2 applied the positive predictive value to data from 1844 11–19-year-olds responding to the 2021 follow-up to estimate the prevalence of eating disorders in England compared to 2017 prevalence.

Results
Parental report most accurately predicted an eating disorder (93.6%, 95% confidence interval: 92.7–94.5). Sensitivity increased when parent and child answers were combined, and with a higher threshold (of two) for children. The prevalence of eating disorders in 2021 was 1% in 17–19-year-olds, and .6% in 11–16-year-olds—similar to the prevalence reported in 2017 (.8% and .6%, respectively). However, estimates for boys (.2%–.4%) and young men (.0%–.4%) increased.

Discussion
We found tentative evidence of increased population prevalence of eating disorders, particularly among young men. Despite this, the DAWBA screening items are useful for ruling out eating disorders, particularly when parents or carers screen negative, but are relatively poor at predicting who will have a disorder. Data from both parents and children and applying a higher cut point improves accuracy but at the expense of more missed cases.

Public Significance Statement
The prevalence of eating disorders did not markedly change from 2017 to 2021, but we found tentative evidence of an increase, particularly among young men. This is despite larger increases in problematic eating, which need further investigation. The DAWBA screen is best suited to ruling out eating disorders which limits its clinical applications as it would provide many false positives requiring further assessment.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2022 The Authors. International Journal of Eating Disorders published by Wiley Periodicals LLC. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Publisher Keywords:	eating behavior, eating disorder, prevalence, screening, survey
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Departments:	School of Policy & Global Affairs > Sociology & Criminology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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