Najem, J., Saber, M., Aoun, C., El Osta, N., Papazian, T., & Rabbaa Khabbaz, L. (2020). Prevalence of food addiction and association with stress, sleep quality and chronotype: A cross-sectional survey among university students. Clinical Nutrition, 39
(2), 533–539. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clnu.2019.02.038
From the research article’s abstract: “Food addiction (FA) is defined as an insatiable desire for the consumption of specific high-fat, high-sugar foods beyond the required energy needs for sustenance. The aims of this study were to determine FA prevalence and to assess associations between FA, stress, sleep quality and chronotype among university students. A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey conducted among students from 8 major Lebanese universities. Students were randomly selected and requested to fill the questionnaire. 644 agreed to participate. Data were collected via a face-to-face interview conducted by 2 trained research assistants. In addition to sociodemographic data, all participants filled the following self-administered standardized and validated questionnaires: Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS), Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire (MEQ) and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). FA prevalence was 10.1% with a 95% confidence interval of 7.8–12.4%. 56.5% of all the participants ha