ScreenED Project

Project Details

The prevalence of eating disorders (EDs) in children appears to be increasing. EDs such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder and avoidant restrictive food intake disorder are associated with a wide range of chronic and devastating impacts on child development and are very distressing for family and community. A range of initiatives are implementing universal parent- and child-report mental health screening to improve early intervention for children with mental illness. However, EDs are currently excluded from these because no validated, reliable screening instrument exists for use with children. There is therefore an urgent need to develop an appropriate diagnostic tool to ensure children with EDs are being recognised and offered early and appropriate intervention.

Aim of ScreenED

To develop, test, and validate, through collaboration with research end-users and especially those with lived experience, an eating disorder screening tool, ScreenED, for use with children aged 5-12 and their parents.

We are aiming to develop a screening tool that:

• Uses clear, non-stigmatising, age-appropriate, gender-neutral, culturally safe language
• Assesses risk for a wide range of EDs
• Taps early symptoms reported in research and by those with lived-experience or their parents
• Is feasible for use alongside existing paediatric screening measures (e.g., CHQ, SDQ)
• Has easy scoring methods, clear cut points, and is freely available
• Fosters future innovation in research and health services via wide dissemination into practice

The team

The ScreenED team is a coalition of researchers and clinicians based at the University of Melbourne, Flinders University, University of Technology Sydney, Greater Western Sydney University, University of Sydney and Griffith University. This project is funded by a MRFF Mental Health Research Mission Grant (APP2026538). The research will take place across four states, with the Vic team leading the project.

The process

To develop the ScreenED tool, we will complete three phases:

1) drafting potential screening items for both a parent- and a child-report versions of the ScreenED tool, using evidence from systematic reviews and co-design workshops. We will begin with 50 draft items and refine these into 20 potential items for piloting.

2)  piloting potential items to examine which items best predict whether a child has an eating disorder diagnosis or not. 20 items will be refined to 10 items with language crafted to suit parents, children and health professionals who might use the tool.

3)  validating and finalising the tool with a robust sample of parent/child dyads and comparison with gold standard clinical interview.

Current opportunities

The Expert Advisory Group

We are currently seeking members to sit on our Expert Advisory Group to help steer our project and make sure the ScreenED tool we develop is suitable for use by children, parents and health professionals. The EAG involves:

• Meeting quarterly (once every three months) for 2 hours via Zoom for the duration of the project (until June 2025).
• Providing written or verbal feedback (over the phone/in meetings) on project documentation such as draft screening tool items and research procedures for co-design workshops or interviews with children.
• Individuals without a salary or those providing lived experience expertise may be remunerated $100 per hour.
• The opportunity to be a named author on at least one key scientific paper arising from the ScreenED project.

For more information, please visit our EAG enrolment page:

https://melbourneuni.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_0V8eq5IDSqkWPCm

ScreenEd in the news

August 2023: ScreenED was highlighted by the federal Department of Health and Aged Care in their MRFF Funding Announcement:

https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-emma-mcbride-mp/media/8-million-for-mental-health-and-suicide-prevention-research

Other ways to get involved

There are also other ways to get involved and support the ScreenED project. We will be recruiting families with one child aged between 5 to 12 years, and at least one parent, for our different studies. We are seeking all kinds of families, including where a child has a known eating disorder, as well as families with no risk of eating disorders at all, as well as families of all cultures, locations and structures.

For more information

For more information about the project, or to learn how to get involved, please contact us:

E: ScreenED-project@unimelb.edu.au

Ph: 03 8344 8863

Collaborators

The University of Melbourne: Melbourne School of Population and Global Health (lead)
Flinders University
Greater Western Sydney University
University of Technology Sydney
University of Sydney
Griffith University

Funding

This project is funded by the Medical Research Future Fund (2026538)