The relationships between hoarding-related behaviours and disordered eating in a non-clinical adult sample: an exploratory study

The prevalence of disordered eating is reportedly high in people with hoarding behaviours, and both eating disorders (ED) and hoarding disorder (HD) show strong associations with anxiety/depression. There is also some evidence that both may be underpinned by aspects of perfectionism. In a non-clinical sample of 252 adults (187 females) we explored possible relationships between disordered eating and hoarding severity, and assessed the relationships between hoarding, eating disorders and perfectionism. After controlling for gender and mood (anxiety and depression) we found significant positive correlations between hoarding symptoms (especially ‘acquisition’) and one aspect of disordered eating (bulimic severity). We did not find an association between hoarding behaviours and perfectionism as a whole, but did find a significant negative association between hoarding and ‘organization’, which is one aspect of perfectionism. The predicted association between ED and perfectionism was found at all levels of analysis. We propose that hoarding-related behaviour (especially excessive acquisition) may be associated most strongly with binge-eating and this should be explored further in future research.