Characterization of the Three-Factor Eating Questionnaire scores of a young French cohort

Abstract

The aims of our study were to characterize the psychological dimensions of eating behaviour of young French adults as measured by the Three Factor Eating Questionnaire (TFEQ) and to analyze the association between the 3 TFEQ mean scores (main scales and subscales) and gender, Body Mass Index (BMI) and socio-demographic data in this population. An online TFEQ questionnaire was used with a nationally representative sample of 1000 young French people (aged 20–39yrs). The average scores were 6.3±0.1 (sem) for dietary restraint, 6.0±0.1 for disinhibition and 5.0±0.1 for hunger. Compared to the limit commonly used in human food studies, young French adults were characterized by low restraint and low disinhibition levels. There was a significant gender effect on both restraint and disinhibition scores, with women showing significantly higher scores than men. Concerning the link between TFEQ scores and BMI, there was a significant effect of the BMI category on cognitive restraint, disinhibition and hunger. Disinhibition was the factor most strongly associated to BMI, independently of gender. Our results highlight both the importance of taking into account not only disinhibition but also cognitive restraint and the usefulness of subscales when studying eating behaviour and its link to body weight. We characterize the eating behaviour of a French cohort with criteria often chosen for healthy volunteers in human food studies. Consequently, we suggest new TFEQ limits (6 for cognitive restraint and disinhibition, 5 for hunger) lower than those traditionally used for this category of the population in clinical food studies.