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The association between alexithymia and eating behavior in children and adolescents.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:Alexithymia, or the difficulty identifying or describing one's own emotions, may be a risk factor for dysregulated eating and excess weight gain. However, the relationships between alexithymia and eating behaviors in community samples of non-clinical youth have not been well-characterized. We hypothesized that alexithymia would be positively associated with disordered and disinhibited eating in a community-based sample of boys and girls without an eating disorder. METHOD:Two hundred children (8-17 years old) across the weight spectrum completed an interview to assess loss of control (LOC) eating and eating-related psychopathology, a laboratory test meal designed to induce disinhibited eating, and questionnaires to assess alexithymia, eating in the absence of hunger, and emotional eating. Linear and logistic regressions were conducted to examine the relationship between alexithymia and eating variables, with age, sex, race, and fat mass as covariates. Test meal analyses also adjusted for lean mass. Given the overlap between alexithymia and depression, all models were repeated with depressive symptoms as an additional covariate. RESULTS:Alexithymia was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting LOC eating (p?

SUBMITTER: Shank LM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6717524 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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The association between alexithymia and eating behavior in children and adolescents.

Shank Lisa M LM Tanofsky-Kraff Marian M Kelly Nichole R NR Jaramillo Manuela M Rubin Sarah G SG Altman Deborah R DR Byrne Meghan E ME LeMay-Russell Sarah S Schvey Natasha A NA Broadney Miranda M MM Brady Sheila M SM Yang Shanna B SB Courville Amber B AB Ramirez Sophie S Crist Alexa C AC Yanovski Susan Z SZ Yanovski Jack A JA

Appetite 20190722

<h4>Objective</h4>Alexithymia, or the difficulty identifying or describing one's own emotions, may be a risk factor for dysregulated eating and excess weight gain. However, the relationships between alexithymia and eating behaviors in community samples of non-clinical youth have not been well-characterized. We hypothesized that alexithymia would be positively associated with disordered and disinhibited eating in a community-based sample of boys and girls without an eating disorder.<h4>Method</h4 ...[more]

PMID: 31344421

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Project description:ContextChildhood adiposity, an important predictor of adult chronic disease, has been rising dramatically. Later eating rhythm, termed night eating, is increasing in adults but rarely studied in younger ages.ObjectiveThe objective of this study was to review the association between later eating rhythm and adiposity in children and adolescents. The aspects of later eating being considered included: energy intake (for evening main meal, evening snack, whole evening period, and around bedtime); timing (any food eaten at later timing); and meal frequency in the evening/night (evening main meal skipping, evening snack consumption).Data sourcesFive databases (the Cochrane Library, CINAHL, Embase, MEDLINE (via OVID), and Web of Science) were searched for eligible articles published prior to and including August 2020.Data extractionData extraction and quality assessment were conducted by 2 reviewers independently.Data analysisForty-seven studies were included, all of which were observational. Meta-analysis showed positive associations between both higher energy intake around bedtime (odds ratio [OR] 1.19, 95% CI 1.06, 1.33) and evening main meal skipping (OR 1.30, 95% CI 1.14, 1.48), and adiposity. There was evidence to suggest that consuming evening snacks reduced adiposity, but it was very weak (OR 0.80, 95% CI 0.62, 1.05). No association was seen between eating later and adiposity (OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.68, 1.61). In the narrative analysis, approximately half of the studies suggested that there was no association between later eating rhythm and adiposity, either as a whole or within exposure subsets.ConclusionThe magnitude of the relationship between later eating rhythm and adiposity is very small, and may vary depending on which aspects of later eating rhythm are under consideration; however, the evidence for this conclusion is of very low certainty . Further research with a more consistent definition of "later timing", and longitudinal studies in different populations, may lead to different conclusions.Systematic review registrationPROSPERO registration no. CRD42019134187.

Project description:BackgroundAutistic people are disproportionately vulnerable to anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders (ED), and within the general population, autistic traits correlate with ED psychopathology. A putative mechanism which may underpin this heightened risk is alexithymia, a difficulty identifying and describing emotional states which is observed in both autism and ED. In two experiments with independent non-clinical samples, we explored whether alexithymia might mediate the heightened risk of eating psychopathology in individuals high in autistic traits.MethodsOur first experiment used the PROCESS macro for SPSS to examine relationships between alexithymia (measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20)), autistic traits (autism quotient (AQ)), and eating psychopathology (Eating Attitudes Test (EAT-26)) in 121 participants. Our second experiment (n = 300) replicated and furthered this analysis by examining moderating effects of sex and controlling for anxiety and depression as covariates. We also included an additional performance-based measure of alexithymia, the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS).ResultsStudy 1 suggested that TAS-20 scores mediated the relationship between heightened autistic traits and eating psychopathology. Replication and further scrutiny of this finding, in study 2, revealed that this mediation effect was partial and specific to the female participants in this sample. The mediation effect appeared to be carried by the difficulty identifying feelings subscale of the TAS-20, even when depression and anxiety were controlled for. LEAS scores, however, were not significantly related to autistic traits or eating psychopathology.LimitationsCross-sectional data prevents any conclusions around the direction and causality of relationships between alexithymia, autistic traits, and eating psychopathology (alongside depression and anxiety), necessitating longitudinal research. Our non-clinical sample was predominantly Caucasian undergraduate students, so it remains to be seen if these results would extrapolate to clinical and/or autistic samples. Divergence between the TAS-20 and LEAS raises crucial questions regarding the construct validity of these measures.ConclusionsOur findings with respect to autistic traits suggest that alexithymia could partially explain the prevalence of ED in autistic people and may as such be an important consideration in the pathogenesis and treatment of ED in autistic and non-autistic people alike. Further research with clinical samples is critical to explore these ideas. Differences between men and women, furthermore, emphasize the importance of looking for sex-specific as well as generic risk factors in autistic and non-autistic men and women.

Project description:Restrained Eating, i.e. the tendency to restrict dietary intake to control body-weight, often emerges during adolescence and may result in changes in circadian eating patterns.The objective of the present investigation was to determine the cross-sectional relevance of restrained eating for characteristics of circadian eating pattern in adolescents and whether changes in restrained eating are accompanied by concurrent changes in circadian eating pattern over the course of adolescence.Two questionnaires assessing restrained eating (Score 0-30) with parallel 3-day weighed dietary records from two different time points were available from 209 (?:101, ?:108) 11-18 year old adolescents of the DONALD study. Mixed linear regression models were used to analyze whether restrained eating was associated with eating occasion frequency, snack frequency and morning and evening energy intake [in % of daily energy intake, %E]. Linear regression models were used to examine whether changes in restrained eating were associated with changes in the mentioned variables.Among girls, greater restrained eating was cross-sectionally associated with higher morning energy intake (p = 0.03). Further, there was a tendency towards lower evening energy intake with higher levels of restrained eating for the whole sample (p = 0.06). No cross-sectional associations were found with eating occasion or snack frequency. Each one-point increase in restrained eating during adolescence was related to a concurrent decrease in eating occasion frequency by 0.04 (95% CI -0.08; -0.01, p = 0.02) and in evening energy intake by 0.36%E (95% CI -0.70; -0.03, p = 0.04). A tendency towards decreasing snack frequency with increasing restrained eating was observed (? = -0.03, 95% CI -0.07; 0.00, p = 0.07). No association was found between changes in restrained eating and concurrent changes in morning energy intake.We found indications for cross-sectional and prospective associations between restrained eating and chronobiological aspects of food intake in adolescents. Our results suggest that restrained eating should be considered a relevant determinant of circadian eating patterns.

Project description:BackgroundPrevious studies have documented that disordered eating is associated with a wide range of impaired physical and mental health conditions among children and adolescents. The relationship between disordered eating and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) has been predominantly examined in children and adolescents who are overweight or obese or suffer from chronic illnesses. In the last decade, several studies have been conducted to investigate the relationship between disordered eating and HRQOL among school and community children and adolescents. No systematic review or meta-analysis has synthesized the findings from these population-based studies. The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to synthesize the relationship between disordered eating and HRQOL among the general population of children and adolescents.MethodsWe performed a computer search for the English language literature using the databases PUBMED, EMBASE and PSYCINFO to retrieve eligible studies published between 1946 and August 9, 2018. We also searched the relevant articles using PubMed related article search features and manually examined the reference lists of the retrieved full text articles selected from the database search. The association between disordered eating and HRQOL was synthesized using both a qualitative method and a meta-analysis. The review was conducted adhering to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.ResultsWe identified eight studies that met the inclusion criteria and were included in the final synthesis. The studies included six cross-sectional studies and two longitudinal studies. The systematic review found that disordered eating attitudes and behaviors were associated with lower HRQOL among children and adolescents. Children and adolescents with bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), purging disorder (PD) and other eating disorder symptoms had poorer HRQOL than their healthy peers without the eating disorder conditions. The meta-analysis using four out of the eight studies showed that disordered eating was significantly associated with poor psychosocial health and lower overall HRQOL among children and adolescents.ConclusionThe present review reveals that disordered eating behaviors and eating disorders are associated with decreased HRQOL in children and adolescents. More prospective studies are needed to ascertain the directions in the relationship between disordered eating and HRQOL among children and adolescents. The findings of this review suggest that health programs for promoting healthy eating and reducing disordered eating behaviors among school children and adolescents may help to enhance the HRQOL and overall health status of these individuals.

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The association between alexithymia and eating behavior in children and adolescents.

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The association between alexithymia and eating behavior in children and adolescents.

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