Contributing roles of depression, anxiety, and impulsivity dimensions in eating behaviors styles in surgery candidates

Background Even if bariatric surgery is considered the most effective therapeutic approach, it is not equally successful among individuals suffering from severe obesity and candidates for this weight loss surgery. Among the factors that influence postsurgical outcomes, eating behaviors styles are known to play a key role in relapses. The aim of our study was to assess eating behaviors styles and several modulating psychopathological factors in patients suffering from severe obesity. Methods Patients seeking bariatric surgery (N = 127) completed a set of standardized tools assessing eating behaviors (Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire), comorbid psychiatric conditions (Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview), depression, and anxiety scores (Beck Depression Inventory, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory), and impulsivity scores (UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale). Results We detected significant correlations between DEBQ Emotional Eating (EmoE) and depression, state and trait anxiety, and all dimensions of impulsivity. Significant correlations were also present between DEBQ External Eating (ExtE) and depression, state and trait anxiety and UPPS-P positive urgency, lack of perseverance and sensation seeking. Regression analyses identified sex (female), trait anxiety, and lack of perseverance as explanatory factors for EmoE, and depression severity score and positive urgency for ExtE. Conclusions EmoE might be a means of dealing with negative emotions and/or intrusive thoughts, while ExtE might result from a mechanism associated with depression. These results should help to improve patients’ outcomes by defining specific therapeutic targets in psychological interventions. Plain English summary After bariatric surgery, some patients regain weight. This is likely due to various factors, including a return of maladaptive eating styles, such as emotional eating (which occurs as a response to negative emotions, like depression, anxiety, anger, sadness, and discouragement), external eating (which refers to the tendency to eat in response to positive external cues, regardless of internal signals of hunger and satiety), and restraint eating (implying to make efforts to develop and maintain strategies to control calories intake, associated with weight loss after lifestyle intervention). Our goal in this research project was to explore associated factors (particularly depression, anxiety, and impulsivity) to these eating styles in patients suffering from obesity prior to bariatric surgery. Individuals seeking bariatric surgery were asked questions about their eating styles and their levels of depression, anxiety, and impulsivity using standardized questionnaires. We found that emotional eating might be a means of dealing with negative emotions and/or intrusive thoughts (e.g. about food or body dissatisfaction), while external eating might result from a mechanism associated with depression. We detected no association between restraint eating and any of the dimensions of impulsivity, nor depression and anxiety. Therapies aimed at improving patients’ abilities to regulate negative affects seem promising among subjects suffering from obesity and those seeking bariatric surgery. If well learned, these therapies might also help them to maintain weight loss after surgery by limiting maladaptive eating styles.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and related lockdown measures on lifestyle behaviors and wellbeing in children and adolescents with severe obesity

Introduction: COVID-19 lockdown measures have large impact on lifestyle behaviors and wellbeing of children. The aim of this mixed-methods study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures on eating styles and behaviors, physical activity (PA), screen time, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children (0-18 years) with severe obesity. Methods: During the first COVID-19 wave (April 2020), validated questionnaires were completed and semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with parents of children with severe obesity (adult BMI-equivalent ≥35kg/m2) and/or with the children themselves. Changes in pre-pandemic versus lockdown scores of the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire Children (DEBQ-C), Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQLTM), and Dutch PA Questionnaire were assessed. Qualitative analyses were performed according to the Grounded Theory. Results: Ninety families were approached of which 83 families were included. Characteristics of the included children were: mean age 11.2 ± 4.6 years, 52% female, mean BMI SD-score +3.8 ± 1.0. Emotional, restrained, and external eating styles, HRQoL, and (non-educational) screen time did not change on group level (all p>0.05). However, weekly PA decreased (mean difference -1.9 hours/week, p=0.02), mostly in adolescents. In the majority of children, mean weekly PA decreased to ≤2 hours/week. Children with high emotional and external eating scores during lockdown or pre-existent psychosocial problems had the lowest HRQoL (p<0.01). Qualitative analyses revealed an increased demand for food in a significant proportion of children (n=21), mostly in children <10 years (19/21). This was often attributed to loss of daily structure and perceived stress. Families who reported no changes (n=15) or improved eating behaviors (n=11) attributed this to already existing strict eating schemes that they kept adhering to during lockdown. Conclusion: This study shows differing responses to COVID-19 lockdown measures in children with severe obesity. On group level, PA significantly decreased and in substantial minorities eating styles and HRQoL deteriorated. Children with pre-existent psychosocial problems or pre-pandemic high external or emotional eating scores were most at risk. These children and their families should be targeted by health care professionals to minimize negative physical and mental health consequences.

Adaptation, validation and reliability of the Spanish version of eating pattern inventory for children EPIC-C in a sample of Mexican adolescents

Background: Eating behavior represents an important public health issue. This study shows the results of the adaptation and validation of the questionnaire eating pattern inventory for children (EPI-C) in the Spanish version, what can be very useful in Spanish-speaking contexts.Methods: The adaptation and validation of the questionnaire was carried out with a statistically representative sample of 417 adolescents of Mexico City. Different statistical analysis were applied.Results: The analysis of the adapted version reproduced the same factorial structure and psychometric properties as the original questionnaire. The adapted inventory consisted of 20 items, formed by 4 subscales dietary restraint (8 items), external eating (6 items), parental pressure to eat (3 items), and emotional eating (3 items) which explained the 68,8% of the total variable.Conclusions: The scores of the subscales were associated with the body weight of the adolescents with normal weight and overweight-obesity, with the level of the anxiety state, with the emotional eating and with the dietary restraints which suggests initial evidence of its validity and utility in Spanish speaking countries.

Mediating Role of Rumination in the Relationship of Worry and Unhealthy Eating Behaviors among University Students

Students’ success primarily lies in the proper functioning of health behaviors, enhancing their cognitive skills during higher-level studies. However, the links between worry and health behaviors such as dietary habits are not entirely understood, particularly during student life when overthinking increases. The present study examines the relationship between worry and unhealthy eating behaviors among university students and the mediating role of rumination. For this purpose, a sample of 200 (100 male and 100 female) university students is taken in the study. The responses were recorded on a booklet consisting of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ, 16 items), Ruminative Responses Scale (RRS; Short version, 10 items), and Dutch Eating Behaviors Scale (DEBQ, 33 items). Findings indicated that worry and unhealthy eating behaviors (viz., dietary restrained, emotional and external eating) positively correlated and rumination mediated the relationship of worry with emotional and external eating. Moreover, female students scored significantly higher on rumination than male students. The study can help design interventions and plan strategies for university students' health, growth, and development as a large proportion of the sample reported a significant impact of worry on unhealthy eating behaviors.

The Effect of Combined Internet Diet Behavior Intervention On School-Age Children

Background With the development of the economy and the improvement of people's quality of life, the problem of children's eating behavior is a common phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of combined internet dietary behavior intervention on the dietary behavior of school-age children. Methods A randomized controlled trial (RCT) was conducted among school-age children aged 6–12 years and their parents. A total of 480 children participated, 240 in the experimental group and 240 in the control group. The children in the experimental group were given dietary behavior intervention for 2 months. The intervention was conducted through face-to-face lectures and WeChat; the children in the control group did not make any intervention. The school-age children’s eating behavior scale (CSCEBQ) was used to evaluate the eating behavior of all children at baseline and 2 months. The rank-sum test and X2 test were used to analyze the data. Results At baseline, the experimental group and the control group had no significant differences in the scores of the six dimensions of food fussiness, food responsiveness, satiety responsiveness, unhealthy eating habits, external eating, craving for junk food (p > 0.05). After 2 months, in addition to the food preference dimension, the dietary behavior scores of the children in the experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group in other dimensions (p ≤ 0.01). Conclusions Compared with the control group, the children in the experimental group improved in food fussiness, food responsiveness, unhealthy eating habits, external eating, dietary restriction, craving for junk food. This study increases the knowledge of using WeChat to intervene, and evaluated the impact of using CSCEBQ on children’s diet, and provides a more scientific and effective basis for the clinical intervention of children with eating behavior problems.

Cerebral μ-opioid and CB1 receptor systems have distinct roles in human feeding behavior

Eating behavior varies greatly between individuals, but the neurobiological basis of these trait-like differences in feeding remains poorly understood. Central μ-opioid receptors (MOR) and cannabinoid CB1 receptors (CB1R) regulate energy balance via multiple neural pathways, promoting food intake and reward. Because obesity and eating disorders have been associated with alterations in the brain’s opioid and endocannabinoid signaling, the variation in MOR and CB1R system function could potentially underlie distinct eating behavior phenotypes. In this retrospective positron emission tomography (PET) study, we analyzed [11C]carfentanil PET scans of MORs from 92 healthy subjects (70 males and 22 females), and [18F]FMPEP-d2 scans of CB1Rs from 35 subjects (all males, all also included in the [11C]carfentanil sample). Eating styles were measured with the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ). We found that lower cerebral MOR availability was associated with increased external eating—individuals with low MORs reported being more likely to eat in response to environment’s palatable food cues. CB1R availability was associated with multiple eating behavior traits. We conclude that although MORs and CB1Rs overlap anatomically in brain regions regulating food reward, they have distinct roles in mediating individual feeding patterns. Central MOR system might provide a pharmacological target for reducing individual’s excessive cue-reactive eating behavior.

Improving the touchscreen-based food approach-avoidance task: remediated block-order effects and initial findings regarding validity

Approach biases to foods may explain why food consumption often diverges from deliberate dietary intentions. Yet, the assessment of behavioural biases with the approach-avoidance tasks (AAT) is often unreliable and validity is partially unclear. The present study continues a series of studies that develop a task based on naturalistic approach and avoidance movements on a touchscreen (hand-AAT). In the hand-AAT, participants are instructed to respond based on the food/non-food distinction, thereby ensuring attention to the stimuli. Yet, this implies the use of instruction switches (i.e., ‘approach food – avoid objects’ to ‘avoid food – approach objects’), which introduce order effects. The present study increased the number of instruction switches to potentially minimize order effects, and re-examined reliability. We additionally included the implicit association task (IAT) and several self-reported eating behaviours to investigate the task’s validity. Results replicated the presence of reliable approach biases to foods irrespective of instruction order. Evidence for validity, however, was mixed: biases correlated positively with external eating, increase in food craving and aggregated image valence ratings but not with desire to eat ratings of the individual images considered within participants or the IAT. We conclude that the hand-AAT can reliably assess approach biases to foods that are relevant to self-reported eating patterns.

Prospective relations between maternal emotional eating, feeding to soothe, and infant appetitive behaviors

Background Infant obesogenic appetitive behaviors are associated with greater infant weight and child obesity, yet little is known about maternal influences on infant appetitive behaviors. This study examines the relations between maternal eating behaviors, feeding to soothe, and infant appetitive behaviors in a longitudinal sample of United States mothers. Methods Pregnant women were recruited in the first trimester (< 12 weeks) and followed through 1 year postpartum. Mothers reported their own eating behaviors (eating competence, restrained, emotional, and external eating) in pregnancy; feeding to soothe their infant at 2, 6, and 12 months postpartum; and their infants’ appetitive behaviors (enjoyment of food, food responsiveness, slowness in eating, and satiety responsiveness) at 6 months. Three path models were estimated to examine the direct relations of maternal eating behaviors with infant appetitive behaviors, the indirect relations of maternal eating behaviors with infant appetitive behaviors through feeding to soothe, and the longitudinal relations between feeding to soothe and infant appetitive behaviors. Results Maternal eating behaviors and infant appetitive behaviors were directly and indirectly related in all three models. Greater maternal eating competence was related to greater enjoyment of food but was not related to feeding to soothe. Greater maternal restrained and external eating were not directly related to infant appetitive behaviors but were indirectly related to greater infant responsiveness to food through more frequent feeding to soothe. Additionally, several longitudinal relations between feeding to soothe behaviors and infant appetitive behaviors were present. More frequent feeding to soothe at 2 months was related to greater responsiveness to food at 6 months, which was then related to more frequent feeding to soothe at 6 months. Furthermore, greater satiety responsiveness, faster eating speed, and greater responsiveness to food at 6 months were related to more frequent feeding to soothe at 12 months. Conclusions Maternal eating behaviors were related to infant appetitive behaviors directly and indirectly through feeding to soothe. Additionally, results suggest feeding to soothe and infant appetitive behaviors may be bidirectionally linked. These results underscore the need to examine how parental feeding behaviors are influenced both by parental eating behaviors and child appetitive behaviors throughout infancy. Trial registration Clinicaltrials.gov. Registration ID – NCT02217462. Date of registration – August 13, 2014.

Binge Drinking and Obesity-Related Eating: The Moderating Roles of the Eating Broadcast Viewing Experience among Korean Adults

Recently, there has been a notable rise in binge drinking and in the popularity of eating broadcasts via TV and online platforms, especially in Korea. This study analyzed the moderating effect of the eating broadcast viewing experience on the relationship between binge drinking and obesity-related eating behaviors. Cross-sectional self-reported online survey data were collected from 1125 Korean adults. Moderation models for restrained, emotional, and external eating behaviors were tested using moderation analyses with Hayes’s PROCESS version 3.5 compatible with SPSS. As a result, the eating broadcast viewing experience moderated the relationship between binge drinking frequency and external eating (Fchange = 2.686, p = 0.045). More frequent binge drinking was associated with a higher level of external eating in participants who only watched online eating broadcasts, especially among women. Participants in their twenties showed the same above association; additionally, those who only watched TV eating broadcasts showed an inverse association, indicating that more frequent binge drinking was associated with a lower level of external eating. Consequently, an eating broadcast viewing experience was one of the environmental factors associated with binge drinking that influences obesity-related eating behaviors.