The number of men and women hospitalized due to eating disorders that caused anemia, kidney failure, erratic heart rhythms, or other problems rose 18% between 1999 and 2006, according to the latest News and Numbers from the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Hospitalizations for eating disorders rose most sharply for children under 12 years of age — 119%. The second steepest rise was for patients ages 45 to 64 at 48%. Hospitalizations for men also increased sharply — by 37% — but women continued to dominate hospitalizations for eating disorders at 89% in 2006.

Admissions for anorexia, the most common eating disorder, remained relatively stable. In contrast, hospitalizations for bulimia declined 7%.

Hospitalizations for less common eating disorders increased 38%. Those disorders include pica, an obsession with eating non-edible substances such as clay or plaster, and psychogenic vomiting, which is vomiting caused by anxiety and stress.

The report uses statistics from the 2006 Nationwide Inpatient Sample, a database of hospital inpatient stays that is nationally representative of inpatient stays in all short-term, non-federal hospitals. The data are drawn from hospitals that comprise 90% of all discharges in the United States and include all patients, regardless of insurance type, as well as the uninsured.