Abstract:

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the hedonic hunger and eating behavior of adults with poor body mass index (BMI) values. Individuals and Method: The study included a total of 1276 adult individuals, including 541 men (42.4%) and 735 women (57.6%) with ages ranging from 19 to 64 years. The study survey was transmitted online (social media or e-mail) to the participants. With the applied survey form, some demographic characteristics of individuals, eating habits, body weight and size length were questioned. In the Hedonic hunger assessment, the Nutrition Power Scale-Tr (BGÖ-Tr) was used in the assessment of eating behavior by the Dutch Food Behavior Survey scales. The individual is classified in three separate groups according to the BCI classification. Results: 57.9% of individuals have normal body weight, while 31.2% are overweight and 10.9% are obese. At the end of the study, the total BGÖ-Tr score was higher than the normal group in the obesity group (p<0.05). The Dutch Food Behavior Survey found that the restrictive eating and emotional eating score of the subgroup was higher in overweight and obese individuals than those with normal body weight (p<0.001). It has been found that there is a significant positive correlation between food accessibility, nutritional presence, BGÖ-Tr total score, restrictive eating and emotional eating subgroups (p<0.05). In this study, the total and lower score of the BGÖ-Tr used in the hedonic hunger assessment was found to be a positive relationship with emotional eating and external eating from the lower scales of the DEBQ (p<0.001). Results: The study found that there was a relationship between hedonic hunger and eating behavior disorders and that obese individuals were more risky than individuals with normal body weight in terms of hedonic hunger and eating behavior disorders.

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