TY - JOUR
T1 - The prevalence of food addiction in a large sample of adolescents and its association with addictive substances
AU - Mies, Gabry W.
AU - Treur, Jorien L.
AU - Larsen, Junilla K.
AU - Halberstadt, Jutka
AU - Pasman, Joëlle A.
AU - Vink, Jacqueline M.
N1 - Funding Information: GM, JT and JV were supported by the European Research Council (ERC; 284167 ). The authors thank Elien Diesvelt, Lizan Exterkate, Floor Bindels, Jihane Bellak'hal, Cindy Hendriks, Margot van Deursen, Nicky Toonen, Fenna van Dijk, Wilma van der Wielen, Floor Wierema, Judith Maassen van den Brink, Renske Willems, Marloes Koeken, Caitlin de Wit and Sophie de Been for their invaluable assistance in the data collection. Publisher Copyright: © 2017 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2017/11/1
Y1 - 2017/11/1
N2 - The prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing, due to, among other factors, increased availability of highly palatable food (food high in fat, salt and/or sugar). It has been proposed that certain foods and/or eating behaviours may be addictive, to a degree comparable to substances of abuse. The Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) measures ‘food addiction’ by translating the diagnostic criteria for substance use disorder to eating behaviour. So far, only a few studies have examined the prevalence of food addiction in children with the YFAS for children (YFAS-C). Large-scale studies, especially among adolescents, are lacking. Adolescence is of particular interest because it is a period wherein unhealthy eating behaviours or addictive tendencies are likely to develop. The current study examines the prevalence of food addiction using the YFAS-C in a large group of Dutch adolescents (N = 2653) aged 14–21 years. With Generalized Estimation Equation (GEE) analysis we tested the relationship between food addiction symptoms and smoking, cannabis use, alcohol use, and sugar intake through drinks, while controlling for gender, age, educational level and weight class. In the total sample 2.6% met the criteria for a food addiction ‘diagnosis’, and the average symptom count was 1.0 (SD = 1.3, range 0–7). Symptoms of food addiction were positively associated with smoking, alcohol use, cannabis use and sugar intake. We propose that future studies focus on possible genetic/(neuro)biological mechanisms involved in both food addiction and substance use and that longitudinal designs are needed to examine possible causal pathways.
AB - The prevalence of overweight and obesity is increasing, due to, among other factors, increased availability of highly palatable food (food high in fat, salt and/or sugar). It has been proposed that certain foods and/or eating behaviours may be addictive, to a degree comparable to substances of abuse. The Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) measures ‘food addiction’ by translating the diagnostic criteria for substance use disorder to eating behaviour. So far, only a few studies have examined the prevalence of food addiction in children with the YFAS for children (YFAS-C). Large-scale studies, especially among adolescents, are lacking. Adolescence is of particular interest because it is a period wherein unhealthy eating behaviours or addictive tendencies are likely to develop. The current study examines the prevalence of food addiction using the YFAS-C in a large group of Dutch adolescents (N = 2653) aged 14–21 years. With Generalized Estimation Equation (GEE) analysis we tested the relationship between food addiction symptoms and smoking, cannabis use, alcohol use, and sugar intake through drinks, while controlling for gender, age, educational level and weight class. In the total sample 2.6% met the criteria for a food addiction ‘diagnosis’, and the average symptom count was 1.0 (SD = 1.3, range 0–7). Symptoms of food addiction were positively associated with smoking, alcohol use, cannabis use and sugar intake. We propose that future studies focus on possible genetic/(neuro)biological mechanisms involved in both food addiction and substance use and that longitudinal designs are needed to examine possible causal pathways.
KW - Adolescent
KW - Adolescents
KW - Body Weight
KW - Dietary Sugars/administration & dosage
KW - Eating
KW - Female
KW - Follow-Up Studies
KW - Food Addiction/complications
KW - Food addiction
KW - Health Behavior
KW - Humans
KW - Male
KW - Netherlands/epidemiology
KW - Prevalence
KW - Socioeconomic Factors
KW - Substance use
KW - Substance-Related Disorders/complications
KW - Sugar
KW - Surveys and Questionnaires
KW - YFAS-C
KW - Yale Food Addiction Scale
KW - Young Adult
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028062158&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85028062158&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2017.08.002
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.appet.2017.08.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 28826746
SN - 0195-6663
VL - 118
SP - 97
EP - 105
JO - Appetite
JF - Appetite
ER -