Towards Identifying Autistic Adults at Risk for Eating Disorders: A Brief Report Into Clustering of Social Camouflaging and Sensory Processing Differences

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Nimbley, E., Bradley, S., Pickard, A., Sader, M., Maloney, E., Moore, F., Suratwala, T., Sharpe, H., Duffy, F., & Gillespie-Smith, K. (2025). Towards Identifying Autistic Adults at Risk for Eating Disorders: A Brief Report Into Clustering of Social Camouflaging and Sensory Processing Differences. European Eating Disorders Review, 34(3), 648-654. https://doi.org/10.1002/erv.70062

Publication date: 2 Dec 2025 Added to AutiHub: 6 Jul 2026 Type: Article Article language: English
Publisher source (DOI) Full text OpenAlex source

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Authors

Publication authors
10
Publication authors identified as autistic
2 / 10 (20.0%)
  1. Emy Nimbley
  2. Siofra Bradley
  3. Abi Pickard
  4. Michelle Sader
  5. Ellen Maloney *
  1. Fhionna Moore
  2. Tasha Suratwala *
  3. Helen Sharpe
  4. Fiona Duffy
  5. Karri Gillespie-Smith

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Autistic people with an eating disorder (ED) are at higher risk of poorer treatment outcomes and experiences, perhaps due to a lack of understanding surrounding underlying mechanisms. Several factors have been implicated, such as sensory processing and social camouflaging; however, there has been little empirical investigation into how such mechanisms group or cluster together, and if certain clusters place the individual at greater risk of ED severity. METHOD: A secondary data analysis was conducted on an online survey of n = 180 Autistic adults (mean age = 38 years). Participants completed self-reported measures of sensory processing, social camouflaging and ED symptoms. Hierarchal clustering analyses (HCA) was conducted to explore clustering on sensory and social camouflaging behaviours, and a one-way ANOVA was conducted to explore between-cluster differences on ED symptoms. RESULTS: Three distinct clusters were identified: Cluster 1 (high camouflaging, low sensory); Cluster 2 (high camouflaging, high sensory); and Cluster 3 (low camouflaging, average sensory). Participants in Cluster 2 reported significantly higher ED symptoms that those in Cluster 3. There were no significant differences between remaining clusters. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest the combination of these factors may place Autistic individuals at higher ED risk, although future longitudinal, mixed-method and more representative research, which considers a wider range of risk mechanisms, is urgently needed before conclusions can be drawn.

Bibliography cited by this reference

Cited references are imported from external metadata sources when they are available. The list may be partial.

Cited bibliography overview

These indicators describe the bibliography cited by this publication. An author name is counted each time it appears in one cited reference, so the same person can be counted more than once. Names not yet linked to an author already present in AutiHub are treated as unknown, not as non-autistic. Last computed: 2 Oct 2026 07:50.

Cited references
45
With a DOI
44
Without a DOI, from raw bibliography text
1
7 / 45 (15.6%) cited references include at least one author identified as autistic.
References with data to complete
0 / 45 (0.0%)
References with detected author names
45 / 45 (100.0%)
Without detected author names
0
Without a structured title
0
Without a stable identifier
1
References with raw author names still to review
0
References with external metadata lookup issues
0
These indicators apply to cited references displayed on this page, after technical duplicates have been merged. A reference without a DOI can still support author statistics when a title and author names are available.
Author names detected in the cited bibliography
261
From DOI or external metadata
261
From validated raw bibliography text
0
Raw names already validated
0
Raw names still to review
0
128 / 261 (49.0%) names are linked to an author already present in AutiHub. 133 / 261 (51.0%) names are not yet linked.
Names linked to a person identified as autistic
12 / 261 (4.6%)
Calculated across all author names detected in the cited bibliography. Among names linked to an author already present in AutiHub: 12 / 128 (9.4%). Distinct people identified as autistic: 10 / 203 (4.9%).
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