Source

According to a study conducted at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, “gay and bisexual men may be at far higher risk for eating disorders than heterosexual men.” The study results appear in the April issue of International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Canada.com reports that researchers found that “more than 15 per cent of gay or bisexual men had at some time suffered anorexia, bulimia or Binge Eating Disorder, or at least certain symptoms of those disorders — a problem known as a subclinical eating disorder — compared with less than five per cent of heterosexual men,” according to a news release.

Lesbian or bisexual women, however, do not appear to be at greater risk than heterosexual women.
“It is not clear why gay men have high rates of eating disorders,” Dr. Ilan Meyer, the study’s principal investigator, said in the news release. “One theory is that the values and norms in the gay men’s community promote a body-centred focus and high expectations about physical appearance, so that, similar to what has been theorized about heterosexual women, they may feel pressure to maintain an ideal body image.”

To test the theory, researchers looked at how close gay men’s ties are to the gay community to see if that had an influence on eating disorder rates. It did not. “This suggests that factors other than values and norms in the gay community are related to the higher rates of eating disorder among these men,” said Meyer.

The researchers conclude that greater awareness and specific interventions are needed to deal with the issue.