FOOD ADDICTION IN CHILDREN: PREVALENCE AND ASSOCIATIONS WITH DEMOGRAPHIC INDICES AND OBESITY

Background and Aim: Food addiction is one of the main reasons for child obesity. The present study was designed to detect the frequency of food addiction (FA) and evaluate the relationship between FA, socio-demographic, and anthropometric indicators among children and adolescents in southwestern Iran.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted on 222 elementary school students aged 7-13 years in Ahvaz, Iran using a random sampling method. Socio-demographic and anthropometric indicators were obtained. The 25-item child version of the YFAS (YFAS-C) was applied to provide diagnosis of FA and FA symptoms including inability to cut down, much time/activity to obtain, tolerance, withdrawal, etc.). A nonparametric analysis was used to analyze data.Results: The prevalence of FA was 17.3% with more than 50% of student with severe FA diagnosis. Also, the most common symptoms associated with FA were (1) inability to cut down, (2) withdrawal, and (3) tolerance. The students with FA diagnosis were older than undiagnosed one (p=0.04). The male and over 8 years old students showed a higher FA score than females and under 8 years old students (p<0.05). Moreover, a significant positive correlations was showed between all anthropometric indicators and FA score in entire sample as well as a similar correlation between FA score, BMI, and BMI z-score in females (p<0.01).Conclusion: Female students with higher YFAS-C scores have elevated BMI z-scores suggesting that FA may be a remarkable problem in childhood and early adolescence related to a risk of overweight/obesity in Iranian students.

Keywords:

Food addiction , children , obesity