A surge in cases during the pandemic has shone a light on how poor policymaking is in this area of mental health
- Agnes Ayton is chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ eating disorders faculty
Eating disorders are one of the deadliest mental illnesses, but they are also highly treatable. The key is ensuring people can access the help they need as early as possible. Many people who have eating disorders are missing out on treatment because underfunded NHS services are using body mass index (BMI) as the main indicator to determine whether a person can access specialist care.
Introduced in the early 19th century by the Belgian mathematician Lambert Adolphe Quetelet, BMI is a widely used measure in population health. It is a simple calculation: weight divided by height squared. But simplicity comes at a cost. BMI was never designed to be a measure of the overall physical and mental health of an individual, and it’s never used as a sole measure in clinical practice. It’s a rough guide, and it doesn’t consider factors such as body composition, age, gender or ethnicity.
