title: Sex- and age-specific incidence of healthcare-register-recorded eating disorders in the complete swedish 1979-2001 birth cohort.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the sex- and age-specific incidence of healthcare-register-recorded anorexia nervosa (AN) and other eating disorders (OED) in a complete birth cohort, and assess whether incidence varies by diagnostic period and (sub-) birth cohort.
  
  
  METHODS
  We used the actuarial method and Poisson models to examine the incidence of AN and OED from 1987 to 2009 (when individuals were 8-30 years old) for a cohort of 2.3 million individuals (48.7% female) born from 1979 to 2001 in Sweden, identified using Swedish registers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For both sexes, incidences of AN and OED increased considerably for diagnostic periods after 2000, but differed little by birth cohort. In 2009, AN incidence in the peak age category was 205.9 cases/100,000 persons (95% CI: 178.2, 233.5) for females (14-15 years), versus 12.8 cases/100,000 (95% CI: 5.6, 20.1) for males (12-13 years). OED incidence in the peak age category was 372.1 cases/100,000 (95% CI: 336.4, 407.9) for females (16-17 years), versus 22.2 cases/100,000 (95% CI: 13.3, 31.1) for males (14-15 years).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our finding of an increase in healthcare-register-recorded eating disorders for diagnostic periods after 2000 likely reflects improved detection and expanded register coverage in Sweden. The peak of eating disorder incidence in adolescence, which began unexpectedly early for AN in males, suggests the importance of vigilance for signs of AN in young boys and early primary prevention efforts. Waiting until later could miss critical windows for intervention that could prevent disorders from taking root.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.|Division of Women's Mental Health, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts and Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.
authors.forename: Kristin N
authors.initials: KN
authors.lastname: Javaras
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Cristin D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Runfola
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Laura M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Thornton
authors.affiliation: National Centre for Register-Based Research, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.|CIRRAU-Centre for Integrated Register-Based Research, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
authors.forename: Esben
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Agerbo
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Birgegård
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Claes
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Norring
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Shuyang
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Råstam
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Larsson
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lichtenstein
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.|Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.|Department of Nutrition, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
authors.forename: Cynthia M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Bulik
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000856:Anorexia Nervosa / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D015331:Cohort Studies; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D016012:Poisson Distribution; D012042:Registries; D017678:Sex Distribution; D013548:Sweden / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Sweden; anorexia nervosa; eating disorders; epidemiology; incidence; men