Pascal Perney, Raphaël Trouillet, Sophie Schuldiner, Hélène Donnadieu, Philippe Lehert, Mickael Naassila 

https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2026.1855019/full

From the Abstract: Excessive consumption of sugar-rich foods is associated with adverse metabolic and health outcomes. Beyond the amount of sugar consumed, growing evidence suggests that some individuals experience maladaptive patterns of sugar-rich food consumption characterized by craving, loss of control, and persistence despite negative consequences. However, existing instruments primarily assess general food addiction or eating disorders and may not adequately capture behavioral patterns specifically related to sugar-rich products.

The sugar misuse questionnaire (SuMQ) uses a mixed-methods approach. First, a qualitative study was conducted with individuals reporting severe difficulties related to sugar-rich food consumption to identify salient experiential dimensions of sugar misuse (SuM). Key themes were extracted through thematic analysis and used to generate questionnaire items. Second, the psychometric properties of the SuMQ were evaluated in a general population sample. Item functioning and scale structure were examined using Rasch modeling, followed by dimensionality analyses. ROC analyses were conducted to explore preliminary severity thresholds.