Food addiction assessment in a non-clinical sample of the Italian population

The aim of this 2021 pilot study was to find the prevalence rates of food addiction among a sample of Italian people. Most of the participants were female (102/148), although the whole sample was divided into 3 different age groups. Food addiction was reported in 15.5% of the study population, indicated by the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0). The age group with the highest prevalence rate of food addiction was 18-30. Furthermore, every male diagnosed with food addiction was either overweight or obese, when considering their body mass index (compared to the 63.2% of females with addiction who were overweight/obese). This article calls for food education policies to consider the assessment of people’s food addiction (along with eating disorder tests), even in those with no apparent medical symptoms. [NPID: food addiction, addicted, Italian, Italy, obesity, obese, overweight, BMI]

Year: 2021

Reference: Rostanzo, E., Aloisi, A.M. Food addiction assessment in a nonclinical sample of the Italian population. Eur J Clin Nutr 76, 477–481 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-021-00974-7