Severe infections that require hospitalisation or multiple drug therapies are associated with an increased risk of eating disorders in adolescent girls, new research suggests.

US and Danish researchers studied more than 525,000 adolescent girls in a Danish registry born between 1989 and 2006 and followed them until a mean age of 16 to see whether there was an association between severe infections and development of an eating disorder.

More than 4000 (0.8%) were diagnosed with an eating disorder: some 2100 with anorexia nervosa, about 700 with bulimia nervosa and about 1400 with eating disorders not otherwise specified (EDNOS).

Compared with girls not hospitalised for infection, those who were treated in hospital for infections had increased risks of a subsequent diagnosis of anorexia, bulimia and EDNOS of 22%, 35% and 39% respectively.