Donkin, LiesjeSinclair, RebeccaRowland, SarahMcDougall, KahliaLandon, Jason2026-02-012026-02-012025-11-29Journal of Eating Disorders, ISSN: 2050-2974 (Print); 2050-2974 (Online), BMC, 14(1), 4-. doi: 10.1186/s40337-025-01474-w2050-29742050-2974http://hdl.handle.net/10292/20566BACKGROUND: Caregivers of people with eating disorders (EDs) often support refeeding, behavioural monitoring, and co-ordinate therapeutic and medical appointments. Available support is often focused on the person with the ED and rarely on the caregiver. This study examined the impact of caregiving in New Zealand (NZ). METHODS: Current and previous caregivers completed an online, anonymous survey exploring their experience of caregiving and its psychological impact using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21), the Eating Disorders Symptom Impact Scale (EDSIS), and questions about the long-term impact of caregiving on caregivers' mental health. A comparison was made with data on Australian caregivers. RESULTS: Current caregivers reported higher levels of depression and stress than those not currently caregiving, as well as higher levels of depressive symptoms than Australian caregivers. The impact of ED symptoms were also generally higher in NZ participants compared with Australian caregivers.The perceived impact of the ED was associated with the psychological distress experienced by caregivers with greater impact being linked to more distress. Of those whose loved ones were in recovery, more than 25% experienced ongoing post-traumatic symptoms related to their caregiving experience. CONCLUSION: NZ caregivers reported ongoing effects related to caregiving even when the person with the ED had recovered. NZ caregivers experience a high level of distress and burden that can persist once recovery is achieved. Comprehensive ED support should include interventions to improve caregivers' wellbeing.Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.AnxietyCaregiver burdenDepressionEating disordersFeeding and eating disordersMental health5203 Clinical and Health Psychology4203 Health Services and Systems4205 Nursing42 Health Sciences52 PsychologyDepressionWomen's HealthBehavioral and Social ScienceCaregiving ResearchMental IllnessBrain DisordersClinical Research7.1 Individual care needs6.6 Psychological and behavioural3 Good Health and Well Being1111 Nutrition and Dietetics1701 PsychologyJournal ArticleOpenAccess10.1186/s40337-025-01474-w