Abstract
Obesity is a global issue and it has been suggested that an addiction to certain foods could be a factor contributing to overeating and subsequent obesity. Only one tool, the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) has been developed to specifically assess food addiction. This review aimed to determine the prevalence of food addiction diagnosis and symptom scores, as assessed by the YFAS. Published studies to July 2014 were included if they reported the YFAS diagnosis or symptom score and were published in the English language. Twenty-five studies were identified including a total of 196,211 predominantly female, overweight/obese participants (60%). Using meta-analysis, the weighted mean prevalence of YFAS food addiction diagnosis was 19.9%. Food addiction (FA) diagnosis was found to be higher in adults aged >35 years, females, and overweight/obese participants. Additionally, YFAS diagnosis and symptom score was higher in clinical samples compared to non-clinical counterparts. YFAS outcomes were related to a range of other eating behavior measures and anthropometrics. Further research is required to explore YFAS outcomes across a broader spectrum of ages, other types of eating disorders and in conjunction with weight loss interventions to confirm the efficacy of the tool to assess for the presence of FA.
Highlights
Obesity has been described as a global epidemic with 36.9% males and 38.0% females worldwide classified as overweight or obese [1]
This study systematically reviewed all studies that used the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) to assess Food addiction (FA)
Meta-analysis indicated that overweight/obese females aged over 35 years may be more predisposed to FA, as assessed by the YFAS
Summary
Obesity has been described as a global epidemic with 36.9% males and 38.0% females worldwide classified as overweight or obese [1] This is significant given the increased risk of chronic conditions associated with obesity such as cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes [2], as well as psychological implications including decreased quality of life and weight related social stigma [3]. The term “food addiction” has been used in combination with specific eating behaviors to describe an abnormal pattern of excessive consumption [7,8,9] While behavioral addictions such as gambling have been recently recognized by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) [10], there is no consensus that FA is a clinical disorder nor is there a universally accepted definition for FA. While there have been many more neuroimaging studies of obesity as a proxy for FA [12,13,14,15,16], findings have been inconsistent [17]
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