Outcomes matter. As a growing eating disorder treatment provider, we do many things—outreach, operations, IT, marketing—but all of it is rendered meaningless if our treatment doesn’t work. In order to ensure that all of our efforts are moving us toward our goal of providing effective eating disorder care to everyone who needs it, we must closely and continually evaluate the impact of our work.
That’s why at Equip, we’re rigorous about tracking and reporting on our clinical outcomes. We have a dedicated research team who operate independently of our clinical team to ensure objectivity and regularly monitor the effectiveness of our treatment. With combined decades of experience conducting clinical studies, our research team includes industry leaders in the study of eating disorders, psychology, nutrition, advanced statistical modeling, and more.
But we know that just measuring outcomes isn’t enough. In order to best serve our patients—and hold ourselves accountable to our high standards—transparency is key. That’s why we’re proud to share our first annual outcomes report, which provides a close look at Equip’s outcomes data for our patients and their loved ones. We hope to use these findings to inform our care going forward, and are dedicated to bringing you into our journey by publicly sharing a new outcomes report each year.
Our 2023 outcomes report
Our inaugural report includes outcomes from treatment we provided to children, teens, and young adults from the moment we opened our doors in late 2020 through March 2023. During this time period, we only treated patients aged 6 to 24; we’ve now expanded to treat patients of all ages and our future outcomes reports will include a more diverse patient population.
You can read the full report here and preview some key highlights below.
Who we treated
Our treatment model is built to be accessible to everyone, especially populations that often slip through the cracks of treatment. During the time covered in this report:
- ⅓ of patients were BIPOC
- 10% of patients were nonbinary or transgender
- 14% of patients were men and boys
The relatively younger age of the patients covered in the report is reflected in the diagnoses we treated; both ARFID and anorexia tend to set in earlier than other eating disorders.
- 74% of patients had anorexia
- 17% of patients had ARFID
- 9% of patients had other eating disorders, including bulimia, binge eating disorder, and other diagnoses
It’s also worth noting that many of the patients we treated came to Equip after trying treatment elsewhere. Eighty-three percent of patients included in the report had received prior treatment without achieving recovery, and 54% had received a higher level of care, which generally means inpatient treatment, a residential program, or a partial hospitalization program.
How we tackled barriers to treatment
Equip was designed to eliminate financial, geographical, or cultural barriers to treatment. Our outcomes report shows that we’re successfully helping patients clear these hurdles.
- According to available data, there are no eating disorder treatment centers in nine U.S. states. Equip is available in all of them and treated patients in 8 of them.
- Traditional care is often cost-prohibitive and many providers don’t take insurance. 94% of Equip patients’ treatment was covered by insurance.
- 5% of Equip patients experienced food insecurity. Our providers worked with these families to help them find local food banks, determine SNAP eligibility, and create budget-friendly grocery lists and menus.
Did treatment work?
Over the time period covered in the report, most patients saw significant and measurable progress, and many achieved full recovery.
- Patients with severe eating disorder symptoms saw a 50% decrease in symptoms in their first 5 months of care.
- As treatment progressed, patients saw more symptom-free days, meaning more days per week without behaviors like restricting, compulsive exercise, binging, or purging.
- After 6 months, patients with ARFID had an increased appetite and interest in food, ate a wider variety of food, and had less fear of adverse outcomes from eating (like vomiting, choking, or stomach pain).
- Among patients who needed to gain weight, 81% reached their target weight within a year.
- The number of patients reporting anxiety or depression decreased by half over the course of treatment.
Parents and other family members supporting their loved one also saw positive outcomes and an improved quality of life.
- 96% of families felt truly cared for by their Equip team
- After 8 weeks of treatment, 60% of parents/family members experienced less caregiver burden, and 75% felt more confident caring for their child
- 90% of parents/family members would recommend Equip to another family
We’re grateful for the opportunity to report on and share our treatment outcomes, and are eager to use these findings to continue to make our care even better as we expand to more patients in the year ahead.
