Determination of the university student's hedonic hunger status with different scales

This study has been planned; with the aim of providing the Turkish adaptations of Power of Food Scale-PFS and Palatable Eating Motive Scale-PEMS scales, determining the hedonic hunger status of university students with those scales, revealing the impact of the factors affecting the hedonic hunger motivation. The study was conducted on 363 university students (203 female and 70 male), who are volunteers aged above 18, meanwhile studying at Başkent University between April 2017 – May 2017, constitutes the sample group of the study. Primarily in this study, validity and reliability analyses for the Turkish adaptation of BGS and LBTMS scales, developed with the purpose of determining hedonic hunger status, was made. In the results of these analyses, all factor dimensions in the original scales has been obtained. The correlation of all scale items of BGS scale with the total score is positive and above 0,30, the correlation of all scale items of LBTMS scale with the total score is positive and above 0,25. This status shows that both scales can measure the impact of food over individuals as a whole. Reliability coefficient of BGS scale (Cronbach's Alpha) has been calculated as 0,85; of LBTMS scale, 0,88. Reliability coefficient for 3 sub-scales of BGS scale approved in Confirmatory Factor Analysis changes between 0,67 and 0,80; for 4 sub-scales of LBTMS scale, 0,75-0,89. These results show that each sub-scale of the scales has an internal consistency. Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index-AGFI was calculated as 0,97 for BGS scale, 0,91 for LBTMS scale. Root Mean Square Residual-RMR value was calculated as 0,048 for BGS scale, 0,020 for LBTMS scale. Root Mean Square Error of Approximation-RMSEA value was calculated as 0,070 for BGS scale, 0,071 for LBTMS scale. These values show the acceptability and applicability of the adaptation of BGS and LBMTS scales to Turkish. After the completion of validity and reliability of BGS and LBTMS scales; they were applied to the university students that participate in the study, relations between the score they got from the scales and other variables were examined. At the same time, a multilinear regression analysis was made in order to explain the body mass index of the students with BGS and LBTMS scales. As a consequence of this analysis, only food availability score among sub-scales of BGS scale has positive affect over BMI (β=1.379), was found statistically significant (p=0,000). It was detected that socialising motivation and coping motivation among LBTMS sub-scales have important affect on BMI. As the coping motivation score increase, BMI shows a positive linear increase with BMI. (β=0.980; p=0.00). It has been concluded; student socialising motivation score has negative affect on BMI (β=-0,857) and this affect is statistically significant (p=0,000). BGS and LBTMS are scales that include statuses such as hunger, emotions and highly delicious food. These scales can enlighten the reasons behind situations such as; caloric consumption far beyond the energetic necessity of the individual as so in the cases of obesity, before and after a surgical operation bariatric how psychological influence of food over the individual changes, over-eating behavior and loss of control eating. Determining the hedonic hunger statuses and reasons behind consumption of delicious food, these scales can be used for directing individuals in a more accurate way with planned nutrition programs and for amelioration of their eating habits. Key Words: Hedonic hunger, palatable food, power of food scale, validity and reliability analysis, factor analysis, Cronbach's alpha coefficient