Calculating the toll of eating disorders in the U.S.

Eating disorders cost the U.S. economy $64.7 billion each year through health care, lost productivity, and other costs, according to a report released June 24, 2020 by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s STRIPED (Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders), in collaboration with the Academy for Eating Disorders and Deloitte Access Economics. The report also documents additional economic costs, including informal caregiving, and estimates the cost of the substantial losses in well-being for people with eating disorders.

The report provides a “critical new body of evidence on the devastating impact of eating disorders on individuals, families, and society,” the researchers wrote.

Watch a press conference announcing the findings