The Prevalence and Determinants of Food Addiction Among Family Medicine Residents in Jeddah’s Joint Program 2019

Abstract

Purpose: Food addiction is defined as “a specific adaptation to one or more regularly consumed foods to which a person is highly sensitive, [which] produces a common pattern of symptoms descriptively similar to those of other addictive processes” (Randolph, 1956). This study sought to measure the prevalence of food addiction and to assess its risk factors among family medicine residents of the joint program in Jeddah 2019.Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study using the modified Yale Food Addiction Scale, Version 2;149 out of 180 candidates were approved to participate.Findings: Most physicians were females (63%), non-smokers (66%), without chronic diseases (95%), single (55%), and living with their families (93%); participants had a mean age of 28 years and a mean body mass index (BMI) of 25. Only 11.4% of the physicians adhered to the diagnostic criteria of food addiction, with 41% experiencing mild food addiction, 24% moderate, and 35% severe. The symptom count had a mean of 1.46, and the most endorsed symptom scored was “persistent desire or repeated unsuccessful attempts to quit.” There was no statistically significant clinical relationship to be found between food addiction and the different determinants, such as gender, age, relationship status, chronic disease, smoking, and BMI in this non-clinical sample.Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: Our study shows that the prevalence of food addiction among Saudi family physicians in training is similar to other studies targeting non-clinical samples around the world. Up to our knowledge, this is one of the first studies in Saudi Arabia, exploring the prevalence of food addiction. We hope that this study highlights the issue as Saudi Arabia has one of the highest rates of obesity around the world