Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women with eating disorders in Japan who attend eating disorder support groups. The paper covers the effect of pandemic-related stressors on women’s health and mental health care, and shows how women use support groups to reclaim health.

Paper long abstract:

Eating disorders are common psychiatric disorders in adolescent and young adult females. In Japan, the number of patients with eating disorders is now estimated to be about 220,000.　In October 2021, the National Center for Child Health and Development in Japan conducted a survey of children's mental status during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that the number of first-time outpatients with the eating disorder "anorexia" increased about 1.6 times and the number of new admissions increased about 1.4 times in 2020 compared to 2019 before the epidemic. While the number of patients with eating disorders is rapidly increasing, there are still only four eating disorder support base hospitals in Japan considered to be specialized treatment institutions. As a result, self-help groups for eating disorders play a significant role in supporting the patients.

While some pandemic-related stressors affect nearly everyone, many especially affect women. This study focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women with eating disorders who attend eating disorder self-help groups and the following three aspects will be discussed in the paper: the pandemic-related stressors on women and their association with eating disorder symptoms; the impact on the mental health care of women with eating disorders at the COVID-19 pandemic; and the role of self-help groups that support women with eating disorders under the various impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.