Studies suggest there is an increased prevalence of eating disorders in athletes compared with the general population. Prevalence refers to the proportion of people in a given group who have a condition at any one time. In the UK, about 1.25 million people have an eating disorder - a prevalence of about 1.8%. However, a study of elite athletes found an overall prevalence of eating disorders of 13.5%. Eating disorders are more common in female athletes, at 20.1%, with 7.7% of male athletes struggling. But, the prevalence of eating disorders in male athletes is about 16 times higher than in male non-athletes.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original article at https://patient.info/news-and-features/eating-disorders-in-sport-why-are-they-so-common-and-how-can-we-tackle-them