Exploring Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Racially and Ethnically Diverse Youth With Eating Disorders Using California Medicaid Claims Data

Abstract

To explore the scope of diagnosed eating disorders among Medicaid-insured youth in California, and to describe the demographic characteristics of this population in a repeated annual cross-sectional study design. California Medicaid claims data were extracted for youth aged 7 to 18 years between January 2014 and December 2016. Participants included all youth who received an eating disorder diagnosis at any point in the study period (N= 8,075). Additional analyses compared youth with eating disorders who were continuously enrolled across all 3 years (n= 4,500) to random subsamples of continuously enrolled youth diagnosed with a mood or anxiety disorder (n= 4,128), a disruptive behavior disorder (n= 4,599), or a psychotic disorder (n= 4,290). About one-half of youth with eating disorders were Latinx (58.5%, n= 2,634) and indicated Spanish as their preferred language (48.9%, n= 2,199). About one-half (51%, n= 2,301) of eating disorder diagnoses were unspecified. Latinx ethnicity and Spanish language were significantly more frequent among youth with eating disorders than among those with other disorders (F11.97, F362.75, p values<.0005). The first examination of publicly insured youth with eating disorders revealed a highly diverse group of individuals among whom Latinx youth were particularly prevalent. However, past-year national prevalence estimates suggest that most eating disorder cases were undiagnosed.