“While the role of appetite in the development of obesity has been studied for many decades, this is the first study to comprehensively examine the role of appetite traits in the development of eating disorder symptoms,” co-senior author Dr. Clare Llewellyn, Associate Professor at University College London’s Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, said in a press release.
"Eating disorders can be harder to treat effectively once they develop and so it would be better to prevent them from occurring in the first place. Our work in identifying risk factors in early life aims to support the development of possible prevention strategies. These could, for instance, involve providing extra support to children at higher risk,” she added.
For the study, researchers analyzed data from 3, 670 young people from two longitudinal studies- one based in the Netherlands and one based in England and Wales. Appetitive traits at 4-5 years old were assessed via parent questionnaire responses while eating disorder symptoms were collected from adolescents themselves when they reached 12 to 14 years old.
Ultimately, the researchers found that around 10% of the adolescents reported binge eating symptoms, classified as eating unusual amounts of food and/ or experiencing a loss of control when eating. Half of adolescents also reported at least one behavior to compensate for their food intake or to avoid gaining weight, such as skipping a meal.
After analyzing the data, the researchers found that higher food responsiveness in childhood- defined as the urge to eat when seeing, smelling, or tasting a palatable food- was linked to a 16- 47% higher risk of eating disorder symptoms. These included binge eating, uncontrolled eating, emotional eating, restraining eating, and compensatory behaviors. In particular, they noted that children who were rated higher for food responsiveness by their parents were 47% more likely to engage in binge eating during adolescence and 16% more likely to restrict their food intake to lose weight or avoid weight gain.
Meanwhile, they found that traits such as feeling full more quickly after eating and feeling fuller for longer during childhood were linked to lower odds of uncontrolled eating and compensatory behaviors. A slower pace of eating was linked to lower odds of compensatory behaviors and restrained eating.
Co-senior author Professor Pauline Jansen of Erasmus University Rotterdam said in a press release:
"Overall, our findings suggest that developing and testing prevention strategies may be a worthwhile effort. Although appetite has a substantial genetic component, we also know that there are environmental influences that offer opportunities for behaviour change."
Sources: Science Daily, Child and Adolescent Health
