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Food addiction and impulsivity in adolescents: A cross-sectional survey of 360 cases

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2023

M. Chaabane*
Affiliation:
Department of Child Psychiatry, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
D. Ben Touhemi
Affiliation:
Department of Child Psychiatry, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
K. Chiha
Affiliation:
Department of Child Psychiatry, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
W. Kammoun
Affiliation:
Department of Child Psychiatry, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
J. Boudabous
Affiliation:
Department of Child Psychiatry, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
I. Hajkacem
Affiliation:
Department of Child Psychiatry, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
H. Ayadi
Affiliation:
Department of Child Psychiatry, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
K. Khemakhem
Affiliation:
Department of Child Psychiatry, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
Y. Moalla
Affiliation:
Department of Child Psychiatry, Hedi Chaker Hospital, Sfax, Tunisia
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Impulsive personality Traits have been highly associated with both alcohol abuse and drug addiction, but have been accorded little attention in the context of food addiction.

Objectives

To study the relationship between impulsivity and food addiction in school-aged adolescents.

Methods

It is a cross-sectional, descriptive and analytical survey, conducted in a sample of secondary school students, randomly collected in 6 schools in the region of Sfax during February 2022. A pre established form of 33 questions, including socio- demographic and family information was used. Impulsivity was evaluated by the Barratt Impulsivity Scale (BIS-11; Patton et al., 1995). The BIS is a 30-item questionnaire that measures impulsivity along the following dimensions: cognitive, motor, and non-planning. The validated arabic version was used. *

The 25-item Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), validated in Arabic, was used to assess food addiction in adolescents.

Results

Our sample consisted of 360 adolescents, with an average age of 16.62 years, being male in 52.2% and with a low to medium socio-economic level in 72.7% of them.

A total of 20% of the adolescents showed a tendency to impulsivity, 23.6% had impulse control disorder.

The food addiction score of our sample ranged from 0 to 56 with an average of 16.37 ± 12.380.

The average food addiction score for adolescents with impulse control disorder was 20.21 ±14.819 while the average food addiction score for adolescents without impulse control disorder was 15.18 ± 11.291.

Food addiction was strongly associated with impulsivity (p < 0.001).In particularly, Non-planning impulsivity was most strongly correlated with food addiction (p < 0.001, r ꞊ 0.252)

Conclusions

Impulsivity, commonly related to addictive substance use behaviors, may be a significant risk factor for food addiction. Early monitoring of impulse control disorder may help to reduce addictive food consumption.

Disclosure of Interest

None Declared

Type
Abstract
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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