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A Survey of Medical Student Knowledge of Eating Disorders and Their Treatment

Kellan Martin B.S.1, Jaime Taylor D.O., M.S., FAAFP2, Virginia Uhley, Ph.D, RDN2,3

1Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

2Associate Professor, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

3Deparment of Foundational Medical Sciences, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

Introduction

  • Eating disorders (ED) are behavioral conditions in which there is a disturbance in normal eating behavior, accompanied by distressing thoughts and emotions1.
  • Several ED patterns exist (see Figure 1).
  • 10,200 annual deaths can be attributed to eating disorders3.
  • Limited studies available on how much education medical students receive on eating disorders
  • Study Hypothesis: Medical students have limited knowledge of eating disorders and their treatment

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Anorexia Nervosa (AN):

  • Severe limitation of food intake
  • Characteristics including brittle hair, cessation of menstrual periods, dizziness and fainting
  • ED with highest mortality rate

Bulimia Nervosa (BN):

  • Binge eating episode followed by compensatory behavior (vomiting, laxative overuse, excessive exercise)
  • Chronic sore throat, dental decay, unexplained diarrhea, parotid gland swelling

Binge-Eating Disorder:

  • Consumption of large amounts of food in short time period, without purging pattern
  • Patients often experience marked distress
  • Most common eating disorder4

Other Specified Eating or Feeding Disorder (OSFED):

  • Encapsulates 5 EDs that do not meet clinical severity for any other ED diagnosis
  • Example includes avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID)

Figure 1: Eating disorder subtypes2,4

Aims and Objectives

1) Assess knowledge base that current OUWB students have on eating disorders

2) Determine how comfortable students are when approaching and treating patients with eating disorders

3) Gauge how many educational hours are dedicated to EDs in medical school classes

4) Analyze and compare data between preclinical (M1/M2) years and clinical (M3/M4) years

5) Help guide future direction for eating disorder education at OUWB

Methods

  • Four medical student classes were invited to complete a 52-question survey
  • Anonymous responses collected via Qualtrics
  • Survey topics included: ED definitions, statistics, treatment guidelines, possible biases, and hours of ED training
  • Analyses included:
    • Overall summary
    • Preclinical (M1/M2) and clinical (M3/M4) student comparisons

~ 500 students invited to participate via university email

50 students consented to participate in study

40/50 participants completed survey in full (n=40)

25 pre-clinical, 15 clinical

Survey Question Examples:

  1. What percentage of adolescents with eating disorders seek treatment?
    1. 20%
    2. 30%
    3. 42%
    4. 50%
  2. What would justify hospitalization of a patient with a restrictive eating disorder?
    • Dehydration
    • Arrested growth and development
    • Acute food refusal
    • Acute complications of malnutrition such as syncope and seizure
    • Any of the above would justify hospitalization

Results

Table 1: Ability to select correct definition of eating disorder subtypes

Table 2: Attitude on ED treatment and common biases (SA = strongly agree, A=agree, SD = strongly disagree, D=disagree)

Conclusions

  • Participants successfully identified key definitions and characteristics of various eating disorders
  • Students were least familiar with binge-eating disorder, which is the most prevalent eating disorder in the United States4
  • The majority of participants (90%) agreed that it is worthwhile to learn about the treatment of eating disorders
  • Overall, students felt that increased ED education would benefit their careers as future physicians
  • Study demonstrates that there is room for expansion of eating disorder curriculum in medical school

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Future Educational Directions

  • Preclinical: early eating disorder education in first and second years incorporated into each organ system (i.e. cardiology, dermatology, psychiatry, etc.)
  • Clinical: requirement to see at least one adolescent eating disorder case while on pediatric inpatient rotation
  • Optional elective focused on adolescent medicine with dedication to topic of eating disorders
  • All years: Increase opportunities to shadow eating disorder specialists

Figure 2: Future curriculum suggestions

References

  1. American Psychiatry Association. What are Eating Disorders? Accessed September 21, 2023. https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/eating-disorders/what-are-eating-disorders
  2. Golden N, Katzman D, Kreipe R, et al. Eating disorders in adolescentsposition paper of the Society for Adolescent Medicine. Journal of Adolescent Health. 2003;33(6):496-503. doi:10.1016/S1054- 139X(03)00326-4
  3. National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Eating Disorders. Eating Disorder Statistics. Accessed September 21, 2023. https://anad.org/eating-disorders-statistics/
  4. National Institute of Mental Health. Eating Disorders. Accessed August 14, 2025. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/statistics/eating-disorders

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Acknowledgements

  1. Michelle Jankowski, MAS. Biostatistician, Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine
  2. Kara Sawarynski, PhD. Embark Program Co-Director, Oakland University William Beamont School of Medicine

Eating Disorder Subtypes

Table 3: Educational hours dedicated to learning about eating disorders