Reflection Assignment

Kelsie Royal

The topic that we have covered in class thus far that is of the most interest to me is eating disorders. When Tara came in and spoke about the subject matter, I was so intrigued because I recently found out my sister has been struggling with an eating disorder. I have never known very much about the subject, so I’ve been more interested in that topic than any other throughout this course. When we learned that eating disorders are the deadliest mental illness, I realized the severity of what my sister is dealing with. Learning that over 24 million Americans struggle with an eating disorder was astounding to me, and I was not surprised to learn that 90% of that 24 million are female. These numbers seem like just numbers until you know an actual person facing this disease. These statistics became real to me very quickly, hence my deeply vested interest in the topic. It breaks my heart for my sister at the same time as it makes me proud of her for dealing with this and fighting back. Some might say it’s the person’s fault who struggles with an eating disorder, but I think it is an illness that is beyond an individual’s control.

            Public health is the study and practice of health promotion and disease prevention at the population level. Eating disorders are directly related to public health because they clearly affect people at the population level, with the astounding number that is affected. It is also related to public health because if healthy eating habits and control mechanisms were presented to young girls through public health efforts, there may be less people affected by these eating disorders. Eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, are certainly diseases that need to be prevented, tying the issue back to public health even further. The remaining questions I have involving eating disorders include:  What public health efforts are specifically geared towards preventing eating disorders? Have the rates of eating disorders in the U.S. increased or decreased in the past decade? What is the typical onset age of an eating disorder?