Last updated on 9-1-2025 by Laïla Boulbayem
Why do we study eating disorders?
- An eating disorder is a mental health condition where people have abnormal eating or weight control behaviours.
- The most common eating disorders are:
- anorexia nervosa (often called anorexia): trying to maintain a low weight or continuously losing weight through drastic dietary restrictions, intense exercise, or other strategies (vomiting, use of laxatives);
- bulimia nervosa (often called bulemia): losing control over how much you eat and then taking drastic action to not put on weight (vomiting, use of laxatives, fasting, intense exercise);
- other eating disorders: disorders close to anorexia nervosa and bulimia, but that do not fully meet their diagnostic criteria.
- People with eating disorders are at higher risk for suicide, comorbidity, mortality, and medical complications.
- People with eating disorders can often have other mental health disorders (such as depression or anxiety) or problems with substance use.
- In addition to diagnosed eating disorders, it is important to be aware of symptoms of disordered eating, because, they can evolve into eating disorders.
- Disordered eating includes behaviours such as binge eating, weight loss dieting, excessive exercise, self-induced vomiting, and the use of diuretics or laxatives but not severe enough to be clinically diagnosed as a disorder.
How do we study eating disorders?
- We asked participants aged 10 to 64 years to complete a standardised questionnaire known as the Sick, Control, One, Fat, Food (SCOFF) questionnaire to identify individuals with a suspicion of an eating disorder, i.e. disordered eating. The SCOFF questionnaire is a self-reported questionnaire consisting of 5 ‘yes/no’ questions addressing core features of both anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa.
- Participants with two or more positive answers were identified as having disordered eating.
Key results
In Belgium,13% of the population has disordered eating.
Adolescent girls are more likely (18%)to have disordered eating than boys (7%).
16% of low-educated individuals have disordered eating compared to 10% of high-educated individuals.
Disordered eating is more present in Brussels (18%) than in Flanders (12%).
Disordered eating by sex and age based on the SCOFF screening tool
Proportion of the Belgian population aged 10 to 64 years with disordered eating, by age and sex. Belgium: 2022-2023
- Crude = results weighted for season, age, sex, and socioeconomic status.
- In Belgium, disordered eating is observed in 13% of the individuals aged between 10 and 64 years.
- The proportion of individuals with disordered eating is higher in women (15%) than in men (11%). This difference is highest among adolescents where 18% of girls have disordered eating, against 7% of boys.
- In men, disordered eating is more frequent in young adults aged 18 to 39 years (14%) than in adolescents (7%).
Disordered eating by educational level based on the SCOFF screening tool
Proportion of the Belgian population aged 10 to 64 years with disordered eating, by education level. Belgium: 2022-2023
- Crude = results weighted according to the season, sex, age, and socioeconomic status.
- The education level is calculated at the household level by considering the highest diploma obtained by: (i) the respondents or their partner for adults (aged 18 years and above), or (ii) the father and mother (or carer, if applicable) for children and adolescents (aged 3 to 17 years). However, for simplicity, we refer to the education level of individuals rather than the education level of their households.
- The proportion of individuals with disordered eating decreases when the level of education increases. This proportion is higher among those with the lowest education levels (16%), contrasting with those with the highest education levels (10%).
Disordered eating by region based on the SCOFF screening tool
Proportion of the Belgian population aged 10 to 64 years with disordered eating, by region. Belgium: 2022-2023
- Adjusted = results weighted for season, age, sex, and socioeconomic status, and adjusted according to age and sex based on linear regression model (using the Belgian population of 2022-2023 as reference).
- The proportion of individuals with disordered eating is higher in Brussels (18%) than in Flanders (12%).
- In Wallonia, 15% of individuals have disordered eating.
Please cite this page as: Sciensano. Weight status and eating disorders: Eating disorders, Food Consumption Survey 2022-2023, June 2024, Brussels, Belgium, https://www.sciensano.be/en/results-food-consumption-survey-2022-2023/weight-status-and-eating-disorders/eating-disorders