S. Bryn Austin, an associate professor in the department of social and behavioral sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, believes the nation is not doing enough to combat eating disorders. Her research has determined that there is a dearth of information on preventive strategies and clinically proven intervention strategies to combat eating disorders.
Dr. Austin surveyed the leading academic journals in the field and found that only 4 percent of the published articles dealt with prevention. “Eating disorders need to be higher up on the public health agenda,” states Dr. Austin. “Public health schools are leaders in training the nation’s top prevention scientists, but they are laggards in training in eating disorders. We are going to have to change this before we can make meaningful headway in preventing eating disorders and related problems with weight, shape, and appearance that affect too many millions of youth and adults.”
Dr. Austin is a graduate of Cornell University. She holds master’s and doctoral degrees in public health from Harvard University.