[Emotional factors and eating styles as predictors of binge eating disorder symptoms in women with overweight or obesity, considering age and nutritional status].

INTRODUCTION binge eating disorder (BED) is the most common eating disorder and is linked to overweight/obesity, negative affect, and dysregulated eating patterns.

Objective

to examine the impact of negative affect, emotional eating, and external eating on BED symptomatology in women with overweight or obesity, taking into account life stage and nutritional status.

Materials And Methods

participants were 313 Chilean women aged 18-61 years, with a BMI ≥ 25 and at least two binge episodes in the past month. The DEBQ (emotional and external subscales), BEDS-7, and PANAS (negative affect) were administered. MANOVA/ANOVA, mediation, and multiple regression analyses were performed, controlling for age and BMI.

Results

MANOVA showed a significant effect of nutritional status on the set of dependent variables (negative affect, emotional eating, external eating, and BED symptomatology). ANOVA indicated that emotional eating was higher among women with obesity compared to those with overweight, with no differences by life stage and no interaction effects. Mediation analysis revealed that the association between negative affect and BED symptomatology was partially mediated, and only through emotional eating. Multiple regression accounted for 21.2 % of the variance in BED symptomatology, with negative affect and emotional eating as significant predictors. Age was inversely associated with BED symptomatology.

Conclusions

negative affect and emotional eating play a key role in BED symptomatology. Emotional regulation should be prioritized in prevention and treatment efforts, with particular attention to younger women.