Given the severity of eating disorders, effective and easily implementable prevention programs which reduce incidence rates and in addition have health-economic benefits are essential. The majority of research on prevention programs focuses on questionnaire-based efficacy or the reduction of eating disorder symptoms while neglecting the health-economic perspective. By contrast, the present study focuses on both an efficacy analysis considering diagnostic criteria (DSM-5) and on evaluating the cost-benefit of a universal prevention program for eating disorders ("MaiStep").