Food addiction assessment in a nonclinical sample of the Italian population

Objective Discussion about the potential addictive role of certain types of food and their link with obesity has recently increased. Researchers have developed instruments to specifically assess food addiction (FA). The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the prevalence of food addiction in a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:European journal of clinical nutrition 2022-03, Vol.76 (3), p.477-481
Main Authors: Rostanzo, Elvira, Aloisi, Anna Maria
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
692/699/1702/393
692/700/2814
Addictions
Adolescent
Adult
Body mass index
Body size
Body weight
Clinical Nutrition
Diagnosis
Eating disorders
Epidemiology
Feeding Behavior
Female
Females
Food
Food Addiction - diagnosis
Food Addiction - epidemiology
Humans
Internal Medicine
Male
Males
Medical diagnosis
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Metabolic Diseases
Obesity
Overweight
Pilot Projects
Psychometrics
Public Health
Reproducibility of Results
Signs and symptoms
Surveys and Questionnaires
Young Adult
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Summary:Objective Discussion about the potential addictive role of certain types of food and their link with obesity has recently increased. Researchers have developed instruments to specifically assess food addiction (FA). The aim of this pilot study was to investigate the prevalence of food addiction in a nonclinical sample of the Italian population. Methods All participants ( n  = 148: 46 males, 102 females) completed the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0) and provided self-reported measures and demographic information. They were divided into three age groups. Results The prevalence of FA was 15.5% of our sample (82.6% of the subjects diagnosed with FA were female). The FA symptoms mean was 1.90 (SD = 2.87). In both sexes, participants aged 18–30 had the highest diagnosis of FA, with 52.1% of all FA subjects being females aged 18–30. According to the Body Mass Index (BMI), all the males diagnosed with FA were overweight or obese, as were most (63.2%) of the FA females. Conclusions Future food education policies could consider FA assessment together with that of other eating disorders, even among nonclinical subjects in order to anticipate diagnosis and improve treatment.
ISSN:0954-3007
1476-5640
DOI:10.1038/s41430-021-00974-7