Evaluation of food addiction and influencing factors in secondary school students in Ankara

This research was conducted in a descriptive-cross-sectional type in order to examine the level of food addiction and the factors affecting food addiction in 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th grade students studying in secondary schools in Ankara. The research was carried out with 2092 middle school students who studied at 23 secondary schools affiliated to the Ankara Provincial Directorate of National Education in the academic years of 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 and were selected among the students by "simple random sampling" method. The research was conducted with the necessary permissions from the owner of the scale, the ethics commission unit of the university and the Ankara Provincial Directorate of National Education for the implementation of the research. The data of the research were obtained using the "Personal Data Form" and "Yale Food Addiction Scale". The data collection tools were filled in by the students during one class hour in the classroom, by obtaining written and verbal consent and face-to-face interviews. Frequencies (number, percentage) for categorical variables and descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) for numerical variables were used in the evaluation of the data. Chi-square test was used in comparison of qualitative data and Fisher's Exact test was used when necessary. 56.2% of the students participating in the study are girls and 43.8% are boys and their average age is 12.44 ± 1.13. 15.4% of the students are 5th grade, 22.9% are 6th grade, 36% are 7th grade, 25.6% are 8th grade students. When the students were classified according to their body mass index, 48.7% were found to be normal weight. When eating habits are examined; It was found that 52.6% were fed regularly, 26.6% ate mostly in the evening meals, 61.6% consumed their meals between 15-30 minutes and 33.9% drank 501-1000 ml of water a day. When the foods that make students want to eat excessively and that they have problems because of this; top five chips (48.3%), chocolate / wafer (45.1%), cola / soda (43.3%), pizza / lahmacun / doner (43.1) and cake / cake (37.2) was found as. The most common symptom in students is "failure to quit or anxiety about quitting" with 91.9%. According to the scores of the students from the scale, it was determined that 8.2% of them had food addiction. As a result, those with a high body mass index, low school success, working mother, low income level, thinking that the amount of pocket money is insufficient, wanting to have more friends, wanting to be thinner or overweight, vomiting after eating, eating then it was observed that the students who feel guilty, eat irregularly, eat more and more when they are happy, consult a psychologist, have a physical illness and do not exercise, have food addiction.