Introduction: Binge eating is the most common form of disordered eating associated with obesity, reduced quality of life, and medical and psychological comorbidities. It therefore affects the well-being of individuals. This underscores the fact that it is a serious public health problem. The study aimed to investigate binge eating and anxiety across gender, age and body mass index in a large population sample of adults in Slovenia.
Methods: A total of 3,310 adult volunteers participated in this cross-sectional study. Questionnaires, including a binge eating and anxiety scale and an eating behaviour questionnaire, were completed by 1,487 subjects (90.9% female, ages 18 to 69).
Results: The frequency of reported binge eating was 29.9%, with 9.8% of participants reporting severe binge eating, and the presence of overweight and obesity was high (41.8%). BMI was associated with this problematic eating, and explained 5.4% of the variation in binge eating. Importantly, anxiety was the most important factor related to binge eating, with younger participants and women reporting significantly more anxiety.
Conclusion: The high presence of binge eating, obesity and anxiety in the Slovenian population-based sample is worrying. Anxiety is clearly an important factor in understanding the relationship between negative affect and binge eating, as it accounts for a greater proportion of the variance in binge eating symptoms than BMI. Particularly concerning was the fact that the youngest participants showed the greatest anxiety. Targeting anxious adolescents and females is important from a health perspective because it can impact the physical and mental health of the population in the long term.
Uvod: Hranjenje z izgubo nadzora (angl. binge eating) je najpogostejša oblika motenega prehranjevanja, povezana z debelostjo, zmanjšano kakovostjo življenja, zdravstvenimi komorbidnostmi in psihološko disfunkcijo ter tako vpliva na dobro počutje posameznika. Gre torej za resen javnozdravstveni problem. Namen raziskave je bil raziskati to moteno prehranjevanje in anksioznost glede na spol, starost in indeks telesne mase na velikem populacijskem vzorcu odraslih v Sloveniji.
Metode: V tej presečni študiji je sodelovalo 3.310 odraslih prostovoljcev. 1.487 (90,9 % žensk, starih od 18 do 69 let) je izpolnilo vprašalnike v celoti. Uporabili smo vprašalnik hranjenja z izgubo nadzora, anksioznosti in vprašalnik o prehranjevalnem vedenju.
Rezultati: Pogostost motenega prehranjevanja je bila 29,9-odstotna, pri čemer je 9,8 % udeležencev poročalo o hudem hranjenju z izgubo nadzora. Prisotnost prekomerne telesne mase in debelosti je bila visoka (41,8 %). ITM je bil povezan s tem problematičnim prehranjevanjem. Anksioznost je bila statistično pomembno povezana z motenim prehranjevanjem, izgubo nadzora, pri čemer so mlajši udeleženci in ženske poročali o znatno višji anksioznosti.
Sklep: Zaskrbljujoče je visoko poročanje o hranjenju z izgubo nadzora, debelosti in anksioznosti med odraslimi v Sloveniji. Predvsem pa rezultati opozarjajo na pomen anksioznosti, saj je očitno pomembno povezana s problematičnim hranjenjem, ki skupaj z visokim ITM lahko dolgoročno vpliva na fizično in psihično zdravje v populaciji. Skrb vzbujajoč je rezultat, da so bili mladi tisti, ki so izkazovali najvišjo anksioznost. Usmerjanje na anksiozne mladostnike in ženske tako ni pomembno samo z vidika duševnega zdravja, zdi se, da tudi za preprečevanje potencialno resnih posledic, kot so debelost ali druge zdravstvene komorbidnosti.
Keywords: anxiety, emotional eating; binge eating; obesity; public health.
© 2023 National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia, published by Sciendo.