Binge eating common among U.S. high schoolers, study finds
A large national survey has found a high prevalence of binge eating—eating an unusually large amount of food while feeling a loss of control—among U.S. high school students.
The survey’s findings were outlined in an Oct. 15 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Co-authors included two researchers affiliated with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, S. Bryn Austin and Ariel Beccia.
The report analyzed 2025 data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a biennial survey of health-related behaviors and experiences that contribute to the leading causes of death, injury, disease, and social problems among adolescents. Researchers found that, among a group of nearly 6,900 students for whom binge eating information was available, 40.5% reported binge eating at least one day in the past 30 days, with 17.2% reporting doing so for three days or more.
“It was extremely alarming seeing how high those numbers were,” Beccia, a research scientist in adolescent and young adult medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital and an instructor in Harvard Chan School’s Department of Epidemiology, said in an Oct. 15 STAT News article.
Binge eating prevalence was higher among female (18.6%) than male students (15.9%); higher among Hispanic (20.5%) and Black or African American (18.7%) than white (14.6%) and Middle Eastern or North African (9.9%) students; and higher among multiracial (19.6%) than Middle Eastern or North African students. The finding that young people of color were more likely to report binge eating is significant because it goes against long-held stereotypes that eating disorders mostly affect white girls and young women, Beccia told STAT.
Students who used social media at least hourly, had poor mental health, or had depression were more likely to binge eat, according to the report.
Austin, professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and director of the Strategic Training Initiative for the Prevention of Eating Disorders (STRIPED), noted that the 2025 YRBS included disordered eating data for the first time in a decade, and data on binge eating for the first time ever. She called the inclusion of this data “a big milestone victory for eating disorders research and advocacy.” She noted that STRIPED—working with the Eating Disorders Coalition, community partners, state government YRBS coordinators, members of Congress, and others—had led a decade-long advocacy campaign to get questions about disordered eating, including binge eating, included in the YRBS.
Said Beccia in the STAT article, “Eating disorders are so underfunded and under-studied, in part because we did not have these kinds of epidemiologic data.” She said she hopes the new findings help convince potential funders that disordered eating is “a true public health issue” that deserves resources to spur research and find solutions.
Read the CDC report:
Read the STAT News article:
Forty percent of high school students report binge eating in new CDC survey
