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Speaker 1: Already and this is the Daily This is the Daily

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Speaker 1: ohs oh now it makes sense. Just a heads up.

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Speaker 1: This podcast deals with eating disorders. If you or anyone

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Speaker 1: you know needs help, you can reach out to the

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Speaker 1: Butterfly Foundation on one eight hundred three three four six

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Speaker 1: seven three, or they also have a chat feature on

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Speaker 1: their website, or you can also send them an email.

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Speaker 1: We will have a link to those helplines in our

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Speaker 1: show notes. Good morning and welcome to the Daily OS.

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Speaker 1: It is Thursday, the twenty ninth of February.

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Speaker 2: I'm Billy, twenty ninth of February. I think that's late.

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Speaker 2: Leap here. I'm Sam. Happy leap here everyone.

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Speaker 1: Today, the Butterfly Foundation has released a new report on

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Speaker 1: the prevalence of eating disorders in Australia. It found that

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Speaker 1: one point one million Australians are currently living with an

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Speaker 1: eating disorder, which is this significant increase from twenty twelve

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Speaker 1: when the last report of this kind was published. In particular,

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Speaker 1: it found there was a significant rise in the number

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Speaker 1: of young people experiencing in disorders. We'll explore this deeper

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Speaker 1: in today's deep Dive. But for Sam, what's making headlines today.

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Speaker 2: Inflation held at three point four percent in the year

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Speaker 2: two January. That's according to the latest data from the

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Speaker 2: Australian Bureau of Statistics. It matches inflation figures for December,

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Speaker 2: when the ABS announced the smallest annual price increase in

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Speaker 2: over two years. The ABS found that rising prices in

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Speaker 2: the last twelve months were driven largely by housing costs,

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Speaker 2: which went up four point six percent, and alcohol and tobacco,

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Speaker 2: which went up six point seven percent. Steady inflation doesn't

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Speaker 2: mean that prices are falling. It means prices are increasing

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Speaker 2: at a slower rate than they did previously.

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Speaker 1: Climate Council researchers have warned Australia's above thirty five degree

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Speaker 1: days will double infrequency by the end of this century,

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Speaker 1: so that's within seventy six years if measures to reduce

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Speaker 1: emissions are not significantly boosted. The Climate Council has released

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Speaker 1: a new heat map showing how temperatures are shifting over

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Speaker 1: time around the country. It projected the number of hot

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Speaker 1: days could be reduced by around twenty percent with climate

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Speaker 1: pollution intervention.

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Speaker 2: A senator in the US state of Alabama has introduced

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Speaker 2: legislation to protect IVF clinics. It comes after a recent

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Speaker 2: ruling gave frozen embryos the same legal rights as children,

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Speaker 2: meaning assisted fertility clinics risk legal action for destroying unused embryos.

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Speaker 2: Several Alabama IVF clinics have paused treatments as a result

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Speaker 2: of the legislation. Republican state Senator Tim Melson, from the

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Speaker 2: party that passed the original legislation, is pushing for legal

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Speaker 2: protections so IVF clinics can resume treatments without fear of

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Speaker 2: criminal charges.

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Speaker 1: And today's good news, scientists in the US have made

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Speaker 1: a breakthrough in the treatment of ovarian cancer. A team

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Speaker 1: from the University of Minnesota worked with researchers in Germany

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Speaker 1: and Sweden to develop a way to screen patients with

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Speaker 1: a specific type of ovarian cancer that is resistant to chemotherapy.

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Speaker 1: The research hopes to better predict individual treatment needs to

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Speaker 1: avoid cancer's progressing in patients who are resistant to chemo.

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Speaker 1: Associate professor at the University of Minnesota, EML Lu said, quote,

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Speaker 1: this research marks a significant step forward in the fight

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Speaker 1: against overian cancer to help tailor more effective treatments.

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Speaker 2: Okay, Billy. A new report has come out today on

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Speaker 2: eating disorders in Australia. What can you tell me.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, it's really the most definitive report we have

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Speaker 1: on the state of eating disorders in Australia. So for

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Speaker 1: some context, it's called the Paying the Price Report. It

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Speaker 1: was done in collaboration with the Butterfly Foundation, which is

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Speaker 1: really the key body in Australia for eating disorders, and

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Speaker 1: also Deloitte, one of the big consulting companies in Australia. Now,

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Speaker 1: the first edition of this report was published in twenty twelve,

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Speaker 1: so over a decade ago, and this is only the

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Speaker 1: second edition of this report that has ever been done.

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Speaker 1: And that old report from twenty twelve is still regularly

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Speaker 1: quoted in the media and by the government when they're

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Speaker 1: looking at eating disorders in Australia.

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Speaker 2: That's quite surprising. It's been quite a while between reports.

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Speaker 1: It's been twelve years. I mean a lot has happened,

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Speaker 1: and so it's a really important report that has come

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Speaker 1: out and it's this updated version on exactly what the

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Speaker 1: state of eating disorders in Australia is.

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Speaker 2: So give me a sense then of what those top

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Speaker 2: level findings actually are.

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Speaker 1: So at a very top level, what they found is

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Speaker 1: that there has been a significant increase of eating disorders in.

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Speaker 2: Australia from that twelve year mark exactly.

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Speaker 1: So I'll go through some of these findings. There are

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Speaker 1: an estimated one point one million Australians who are currently

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Speaker 1: living with an eating disorder in Australia and that's about

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Speaker 1: four point five percent of the total population. So to

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Speaker 1: give you a point of comparison, in twenty twelve, there

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Speaker 1: were about nine hundred and ten thousand, so that's an

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Speaker 1: increase of about two hundred thousand people, which is about

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Speaker 1: twenty one percent. And that increase has been seen particularly

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Speaker 1: in women and in young people. Nearly one in four

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Speaker 1: people who experience a eating disorder in Australia are actually

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Speaker 1: under the age of nineteen. That really surprised me. Under

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Speaker 1: the age of nineteen, it's so young. And that proportion

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Speaker 1: of the population under nineteen who are now experiencing and

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Speaker 1: eating disorder that has also increased, So there's been a

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Speaker 1: twelve percent increase specifically in people under nineteen.

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Speaker 2: So to kind of take all of that and boil

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Speaker 2: it down, we've seen an increase in the percentage of

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Speaker 2: Australians who have an eating disorder from this time twelve

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Speaker 2: years ago, and we've seen a particular increase in young

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Speaker 2: people exactly. So my understanding is that eating disorder is

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Speaker 2: quite a broad term and there are different types of

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Speaker 2: eating disorders that a person can have. Am I on

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Speaker 2: the right page here?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So eating disorder is kind of like an umbrella term,

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Speaker 1: and there are lots of different types of eating disorders

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Speaker 1: that a person can have, and the definitions for these

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Speaker 1: different types has evolved over time as our understanding of

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Speaker 1: what an eating disorder entails has also evolved. I'll go

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Speaker 1: through some of the types. So it includes anorexia nervosa,

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Speaker 1: bolimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder, which are probably the

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Speaker 1: ones that people are most familiar with, but it also

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Speaker 1: included other types including avoidance slash restrictive food intake disorder,

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Speaker 1: and that means avoiding or restricting food intake resulting in

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Speaker 1: significant weight loss. But it's different from the other types

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Speaker 1: that I mentioned because the person is not necessarily preoccupied

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Speaker 1: with their body weight or shape, which is a key

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Speaker 1: factor in the other ones that I mentioned. One thing

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Speaker 1: to note is that that one point one million figure

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Speaker 1: does not include things like authorexia, which you might have

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Speaker 1: heard of, and that's an obsession with the quality and

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Speaker 1: health benefits of unprocessed foods. And it also doesn't include

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Speaker 1: disordered eating, which has similar characteristics to the other types,

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Speaker 1: but it's just not necessarily as severe, so the scope

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Speaker 1: of people experiencing these eating disorders could be a lot larger.

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Speaker 2: I'm really interested in why we've seen an increase in

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Speaker 2: young people. Did the report go into any more detail

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Speaker 2: as to why they think there's been that spike.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this was my key question as well, because the

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Speaker 1: report kind of spoke about the statistics. It also spoke

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Speaker 1: about the cost of eating disorders to the economy, which

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Speaker 1: we'll go into later. But my question I really wanted

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Speaker 1: to understand was why, And so I jumped on a

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Speaker 1: call with the CEO of the Butterfly Foundation, doctor Jim Hungerford,

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Speaker 1: about this. Here's what he said.

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Speaker 3: Unfortunately, we don't know all the reasons behind it. What

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Speaker 3: we've seen is that previously people aged twenty to twenty

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Speaker 3: four had the highest risk of eating disorders. That's now

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Speaker 3: moved to people age fifteen to nineteen. It might be

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Speaker 3: partly a good reason that people are being diagnosed earlier,

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Speaker 3: but we're really worrying that the pressures that everyone is

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Speaker 3: under and we're all aware of the pressures that come

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Speaker 3: just from life out of COVID. Social media is one

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Speaker 3: of those. We're really worrying that all of those increasing

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Speaker 3: pressures are increasing the risk on younger people.

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Speaker 1: Another thing that I asked him about is that obviously

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Speaker 1: a big thing that has happened in the past twelve

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Speaker 1: years since the last report came out is social media.

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Speaker 2: The undeniable difference.

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Speaker 1: Exactly, when I think about what has happened in the

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Speaker 1: last twelve years for young people in Australia, the top

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Speaker 1: thing I think about is the prevalence of social media.

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Speaker 1: And so he mentioned it briefly before, but I wanted

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Speaker 1: him to expand on that.

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Speaker 3: So we see that eating disorders do come from a

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Speaker 3: whole bunch of things. So just as background we know

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Speaker 3: there's genetic risks, we know that there's social factor risks

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Speaker 3: the environment that you're in and the people around you

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Speaker 3: and all those sorts of things. There's psychological risk factors

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Speaker 3: as well, but social media is clearly one of them.

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Speaker 3: And one of the things that we're worrying about there

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Speaker 3: is the focus of on body image within social media,

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Speaker 3: and so we all hear of the recent leggings fad,

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Speaker 3: for instance, other things that are really encouraging people to

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Speaker 3: take an unrealistic perspective on their body and how their

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Speaker 3: body should look, and then that's driving towards eating disorder behaviors.

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Speaker 3: But sadly, there isn't enough research for us to really

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Speaker 3: say this amount is due to social media, this is

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Speaker 3: amount is due to genetics, etc.

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Speaker 1: I'm actually not familiar with the legging fad.

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Speaker 3: What was that There was a TikTok fad really looking

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Speaker 3: at the profile of someone who was wearing leggings and

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Speaker 3: how that was supposed to look, and it was a

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Speaker 3: really unhealthy risk And so I don't want to be

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Speaker 3: talking about it, but it's just one of those things

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Speaker 3: where people get pressures on them expecting themselves to live

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Speaker 3: up to some unrealistic ideal and then really hurting themselves

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Speaker 3: in trying to do that.

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Speaker 2: So, Billy, we spent some time talking about the impact

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Speaker 2: that this area of illness has on young women and

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Speaker 2: girls predominantly, what about the male population.

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Speaker 1: I think that's another thing that has come out a

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Speaker 1: lot in the last twelve years that we predominantly focus

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Speaker 1: on how eating disorders impacts young girls and women, but

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Speaker 1: is absolutely necessary to not forget that this also impacts males.

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Speaker 1: So this is another thing I spoke to doctor Hungerford about.

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Speaker 3: He's what he said, There has been an increase in

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Speaker 3: number of young men as well, and historically people have

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Speaker 3: tended to focus on females just because of a whole

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Speaker 3: variety of different things. But from our point of view,

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Speaker 3: we really think then there's being a much bigger focus

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Speaker 3: on males and we do see those same body image

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Speaker 3: ideals really impacting on young men's mental health as well.

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Speaker 2: Did you get a sense of how they actually do

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Speaker 2: this research?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, this is something I always think about when reports

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Speaker 1: of this size come out because obviously they haven't gone

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Speaker 1: to every single Australian and asked are you currently experiencing

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Speaker 1: an eating disorder? Sure, so, I asked him.

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Speaker 3: So it comes from a variety of things. So the

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Speaker 3: two biggest areas are there been a number of surveys

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Speaker 3: that have been held in Australia and around the world

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Speaker 3: where they've gone out to people and then interviewed them

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Speaker 3: about their behaviors, whether or not they've been diagnosed with

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Speaker 3: a variety of conditions, including eating disorders. And then we

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Speaker 3: also have similar statistics that come out of our health

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Speaker 3: system in terms of the number of people who present

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Speaker 3: to hospital or to present to doctors and who get

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Speaker 3: diagnosed with an eating disorder. But you mentioned about going

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Speaker 3: out and talking to people. One of the really critical

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Speaker 3: parts of this report is that we have consulted with

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Speaker 3: people who've got lived experience of an eating disorder, because

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Speaker 3: it is such an impactful condition that really can take

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Speaker 3: over somebody's life. So those people with the lived experience

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Speaker 3: are actually critical to the report, even though the actual

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Speaker 3: numbers coming out of much more academic type research.

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Speaker 2: One other point that you raised before was about the

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Speaker 2: cost of eating disorders to the Australian the conmune Obviously,

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Speaker 2: that cost comes from the health care associated with it.

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Speaker 2: Take me through what the numbers say and the report

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Speaker 2: about that.

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Speaker 1: Well, it's actually not just the healthcare costs, and I'll

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Speaker 1: get into that, But what I found is that the

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Speaker 1: economic and social cost of eating disorders in Australia is

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Speaker 1: sixty seven billion dollars, which is an increase of thirty

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Speaker 1: six percent in the past decade. Although one thing to

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Speaker 1: note here is that the report does say it's hard

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Speaker 1: to compare directly to that twenty twelve report because of

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Speaker 1: things like inflation, but at a top level it has

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Speaker 1: increased by thirty six percent.

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Speaker 2: But what do you mean when you say economic and

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Speaker 2: social costs? Like, how do you quantify the social cost

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Speaker 2: of something? Yeah?

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Speaker 1: So the two different things, and I'll separate them. So

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Speaker 1: let's start with the economic cost, which is what you

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Speaker 1: mentioned before, like the healthcare cost and other things associated

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Speaker 1: with that. That's about twenty point eight billion dollars. And

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Speaker 1: that things like I said, health system costs, and also

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Speaker 1: productivity losses, which means someone's participation in the employment.

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Speaker 2: So somebody not working because they're sick exactly.

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Speaker 1: We know that if someone has an eating disorder, it

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Speaker 1: is harder for them to work at their full capacity.

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Speaker 2: But then how does the social cost fit into that?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so they call that the non financial costs, and

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Speaker 1: it talks more about the intangible losses in well being

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Speaker 1: that someone who is suffering from an eating disorder might experience,

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Speaker 1: and that includes lots of different things like someone's reduced

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Speaker 1: quality of life, you know, people being unable to participate

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Speaker 1: in their favorite hobbies and activities, even things like not

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Speaker 1: being able to go to UNI exactly like work, it's

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Speaker 1: really hard to go to UNI at your full capacity

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Speaker 1: if you have an eating disorder, and.

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Speaker 2: So they've associated a cost with that, a number.

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Speaker 1: With that exactly. The report also had one example that

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Speaker 1: I thought was of note. They said that one person

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Speaker 1: they spoke to talked about not even being able to

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Speaker 1: adopt a rescue dog because of the financial burdens someone's

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Speaker 1: under from having an eating disorder. So thinking about all

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Speaker 1: of the ways that an eating disorder impacts someone, not

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Speaker 1: just the healthcare cost associated with it.

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Speaker 2: And so if those kind of hard costs, if you

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Speaker 2: call them, that were worth about twenty billion, that means

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Speaker 2: that the social costs are then about forty six billion.

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Speaker 1: Exactly, it's forty six point one billion dollars. And like

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Speaker 1: you said, you can bind those two costs together and

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Speaker 1: you get a total cost to the economy of about

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Speaker 1: sixty seven billion dollars.

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Speaker 2: And so, unsurprisingly, the report calls for more government funding

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Speaker 2: in this space. That's not unusual for a landmark report

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Speaker 2: like this. What other information is there on how to

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Speaker 2: actually fix the situation?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So when I spoke to doctor Jim Hungerford, and

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Speaker 1: remember he's the CEO of the Butterfly Foundation, he said,

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Speaker 1: so far the funding from the government has focused a

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Speaker 1: lot on responding to people who present to the healthcare

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Speaker 1: system with an eating disorder, and he said that's absolutely needed,

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Speaker 1: but what we need to focus on now is preventative measures,

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Speaker 1: focusing on people before they actually get to the point

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Speaker 1: of having an eating disorder. Here's what he said on that.

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Speaker 3: The money that is spent by the government and by

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Speaker 3: society to support people with eating disorders overwhelmingly is spent

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Speaker 3: in treatment and support. So from our point of view,

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Speaker 3: it's totally critical for the government to expend a lot

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Speaker 3: more money into prevention and health promotion activities, and it's

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Speaker 3: anaria that's been hugely neglected. We've got experience on both

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Speaker 3: of those sides.

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Speaker 2: There.

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Speaker 3: We've been funded to do some work in skills but

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Speaker 3: nowhere near enough, but we've never received funding for health

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Speaker 3: promotion campaigns who really support healthy behaviors and try and

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Speaker 3: prevent eating disorders to develop.

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Speaker 2: And so logically that would mean a greater focus on

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Speaker 2: young people. If we're getting ahead of it earlier, intercepting

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Speaker 2: people earlier in their lives. That's really Interestingctly, so the

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Speaker 2: report only came out today. Have we had any political

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Speaker 2: reaction to it? I know it hasn't been that long.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, a group of politicians from across the Aisle

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Speaker 1: have come together as part of the launch of this

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Speaker 1: report today. So Susan Templeman, she is from the Labor

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Speaker 1: so she's in the government, Andrew Wallace who's from the

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Speaker 1: Liberal Party so he's in the opposition, and Zoe Daniel,

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Speaker 1: who is an Independent said in a group statement released today,

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Speaker 1: in part thanks to this work, we now have up

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Speaker 1: to date significant evidence that sadly shows what we are

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Speaker 1: doing is not enough for every sufferer. They went on quote,

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Speaker 1: we will bring these findings to the government and asked

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Speaker 1: that they be considered to ensure continual improvements in the

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Speaker 1: life changing prevention and early intervention efforts that deliver better

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Speaker 1: outcomes for all Australians. So that's been the response from

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Speaker 1: the government so far. So there's been no formal commitment

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Speaker 1: to anything yet, but these politicians, again from across the

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Speaker 1: Aisle and including one government MP, have said they will

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Speaker 1: take it to the government and advocate for there to

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Speaker 1: be more funding. And there's a budget coming up in May,

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Speaker 1: so we will absolutely be keeping our eyes on that.

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Speaker 2: It'll be interesting to see how this story plays out.

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Speaker 2: Even over the next couple of days leading up to

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Speaker 2: You're right that budget where we could expect another significant

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Speaker 2: announcement in this space. Thanks so much for that, Billy,

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Speaker 2: and thank you for listening. Where a small independent media company,

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Speaker 2: and the lifeblood of this company is you the listener.

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Speaker 2: So if you can press follow or subscribe on whatever

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Speaker 2: platform you're listening to, whether that's Spotify, Apple or something else,

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Speaker 2: it really does need a lot. We'll be back again

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Speaker 2: in your ears tomorrow. Until then, have a good day.

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Speaker 2: My name is Lily Maddon and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 2: Bungelung Calcuttin woman from Gadigol Country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 2: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.