Article
Food addiction in obese candidates for bariatric surgery
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Authors
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Adrian Meule
- Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
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Daniela Heckel
- Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
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Andrea Kübler
- Universität Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany
| Published: | February 8, 2012 |
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Outline
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Background: Recent evidence suggests that ‘hyperpalatable’ foods can have an addictive potential. Accordingly, excessive food consumption like in binge eating disorder or obesity could similarly be fostered by addictive components. In humans, such addictive eating patterns can be measured with the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) [1]. With this study we aimed at investigating whether subjects with obesity could be classified as food addicted and which factors would differentiate between food addicted and non-addicted individuals.
Material/Methods: We administered the German version of the YFAS and other questionnaires to obese individuals seeking bariatric surgery (N=96). With the YFAS participants were classified as food addicted or non-addicted. Subsequently, we compared groups with regards to gender distribution, age, body-mass-index (BMI) and questionnaire scores.
Results: Preliminary data analyses showed that 41.7% of the sample (n=40) could be diagnosed as food addicted. Food addicted individuals reported more frequent food cravings, higher shape-, eating- and weight concern, more days with binge eating, and were more depressed than the non-addicted group. Age, BMI, gender distribution, eating restraint, and alcohol consumption/-problems were not different between the groups. The food addiction group reported higher attentional, but similar motor and non-planning impulsivity compared to the non-addicted group.
Discussion: The prevalence of food addiction is increased in candidates for bariatric surgery compared to the general population and obese individuals not seeking bariatric surgery [2]. A diagnosis of food addiction is associated with higher eating-related psychopathology and depression. Moreover, only attentional impulsivity, but not other dimensions of impulsivity, are associated with addictive eating.
