FOOD ADDICTION AND RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER ADDICTIVE BEHAVIORS IN KOREAN YOUNG ADULTS
Authors: Choo *Hye-In , Lee Young-A , Goto Yukiori 
Published: February 2025

Background

Addiction is the term used for various forms of uncontrolled, compulsive seeking and taking processes, ranging from risky abuse of substances such as heroin and fentanyl to addictive behaviors such as gambling and kleptomania [1, 2]. Recently, highly palatable foods, including those rich in sugars and fats and thereby high glycemic index, are also suggested to cause addiction, referring as food addiction [3]. However, there have been still large debates whether such foods could really be addictive, as well as whether food addiction is the addiction to substances (foods) or behavior (eating).

Aims & Objectives

Major deliberations in food addiction to date are whether food addiction could be understood as the condition more relevant to substance use disorder or behavioral addiction. In addition, most of studies investigating food addiction have been conducted in populations in Western countries, and there has been a paucity of the data in Asian countries. To further elucidate an insight on these issues, we conducted surveys using rating scales for food addiction, substance use disorder, and behavioral addiction, and examined relationships between them given in the small number of Korean adults in this pilot study.

Method

Thirty-two healthy adults, consisting of 23 females and 9 males, aged between 20 and 30 years, were recruited. Body mass index (BMI) and seven rating scales for various forms of addiction, modified Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (mYFA2.0), South Oaks Gambling Screening (SOGS), Internet Addiction Test (IAT), Internet Gaming Disorder Scale (IGDS), Kleptomania Symptom Assessment Scale (KSAS), Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST), and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), were used to assess their tendencies of addictive states in participants. Correlations of the scores were subsequently evaluated with Pearson correlations analysis with Bonferroni correction.

Results

The mean score of mYFA2.0 was 0.97 ± 0.2 symptoms. The scores of mYFA2.0 in subjects were 1.00 (n=1), 0.96 ± 0.22 (n=24), and 1.00 ± 0.53 (n=7) symptoms when they were divided into low BMI (&lt;18.5), normal BMI (18.5-25.0), and high BMI (&gt;25.0), respectively. Accordingly, no participant met the criteria of food addiction in this small sample size. A significant positive correlation was observed between BMI and AUDIT. There were also positive correlations between IAT and IGDS and between KSAS and AUDIT. In particular, all subjects rated AUDIT scores indicating hazardous or harmful alcohol consumption.

Discussion & Conclusion

The results suggest that prevalence of subjects who exhibited signs of food addiction is predicted lower than those in Western society [4], whereas alcohol use appears significant problems in young Korean subjects. Obesity in Korean subjects may be related to such alcohol use problems rather than food addiction. These results are based on an extremely small sample size, and further investigation with larger samples is required.

References

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2.Huang PC, Latner JD, O'Brien KS, Chang YL, Hung CH, Chen JS, Lee KH, Lin CY. Associations between social media addiction, psychological distress, and food addiction among Taiwanese university students. J Eat Disord. 2023 Mar 21;11(1):43. doi: 10.1186/s40337-023-00769-0. PMID: 36945011; PMCID: PMC10031987.

3.Vasiliu O. Current Status of Evidence for a New Diagnosis: Food Addiction-A Literature Review. Front Psychiatry. 2022 Jan 10;12:824936. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.824936. PMID: 35082706; PMCID: PMC8784968.

4.Praxedes DRS, Silva-Jú nior AE, Macena ML, Oliveira AD, Cardoso KS, Nunes LO, Monteiro MB, Melo ISV, Gearhardt AN, Bueno NB. Prevalence of food addiction determined by the Yale Food Addiction Scale and associated factors: A systematic review with meta-analysis. Eur Eat Disord Rev. 2022 Mar;30(2):85-95. doi: 10.1002/erv.2878. Epub 2021 Dec 24. PMID: 34953001.