Risk assessment of night-eating syndrome occurrence in women in Poland, considering the obesity factor in particular

Dominik Olejniczak,1 Dorota Bugajec,2 Anna Staniszewska,3 Mariusz Panczyk,4 Aleksandra Kielan,1 Aleksandra Czerw,1 Marta Mańczuk,5 Grzegorz Juszczyk,1 Joanna Skonieczna,1 Anna Brytek-Matera6 1Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Science, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; 2Students’ Scientific Public Health Association, Health Promotion Section, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; 3Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; 4Division of Teaching and Outcomes of Education, Faculty of Health Science, Warsaw Medical University, Warsaw, Poland; 5Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, Maria Sklodowska-Curie Institute – Oncology Center, Warsaw, Poland; 6Katowice Faculty, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland Introduction: Night-eating syndrome (NES) involves uncontrolled and most often repeated binge eating during the night. It is related with mood disorders as well as sleep disorders and it may cause obesity. Risks related to NES are obesity, binge eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, affective disorders, and sleep disorders. The objective of this study is to analyze eating habits in terms of the risk assessment of NES occurrence in the population of women in the Masovian Voivodeship (in Poland). Patients and methods: Six hundred and eleven women living in the Masovian Voivodeship participated in the study. The average age of the respondents was 22.7 years (median = 23.0; interquartile range = 3.0). The Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ) was used to assess the risk of NES. Results: In the studied group of women, 1.3% of cases (N = 12) reached a NEQ total score of ≥25, which indicates a probability of 40.7% for NES, while 0.7% (N = 4) reached a score of ≥30, which indicates a probability of 72.2% for occurrence of this syndrome. The highest average total score was observed in the group of obese people. The level of education of the participants did not significantly affect the NEQ score. A weak correlation was observed between the place of residence variable and the mood/sleep subscale (r = 0.11, P < 0.01). Conclusion: NES may be one of the causes of overweight and obesity; therefore, the need for further studies on this health issue is justified. It is worth pointing out that knowing the conditions responsible for the occurrence of NES, it is possible to suggest a prevention procedure for this condition. Keywords: night-eating syndrome, women, obesit

Analysis concerning nutritional behaviors in the context of the risk of orthorexia

Dominik Olejniczak,1 Dorota Bugajec,1 Mariusz Panczyk,2 Anna Brytek-Matera,3 Urszula Religioni,4 Aleksandra Czerw,1 Aleksandra Grąbczewska,1 Grzegorz Juszczyk,1 Karolina Jabłkowska-Górecka,1 Anna Staniszewska5 1Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Science, Medical University of Warsaw, 2Division of Teaching and Outcomes of Education, Faculty of Health Science, Warsaw Medical University, 3Faculty of Psychology, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Katowice, 4Collegium of Socio-Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, 5Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland Abstract: Orthorexia is recognized as an eating disorder, an obsessive–compulsive spectrum disorder, or a somatoform disorder. The aim of our research was to analyze nutritional behaviors for the assessment of the risk of orthorexia. The authors developed a questionnaire in which 981 respondents participated and used it as a research method. Both men and women ate mostly 4–5 meals per day (46.30% women versus 34.74% men); however, more men than women ate 1–2 meals daily (18.95% men versus 7.9% women). Both place of birth and field of study did not differ in terms of the number of meals. Moreover, it was observed that the number of meals per day was correlated with the declared time spent on planning a diet. People who ate over 3 meals per day more often indicates that they spent >3 h per day on planning their diet in comparison with people who ate only 1–2 meals. Only 17.6% of the respondents declared that they most often ate meals in a company of someone, whereas 45.3% indicated that there was no rule. The remaining 37.1% of the respondents most often consumed their meals alone. Almost twice as many men as women never paid attention to the qualitative composition of nutrition. Women followed a slimming diet more often than men (20.3% versus 5.8%) and this indicated >4 attempts of losing weight. Around one-third of all the respondents suffered or suffer from eating disorders. Owing to insufficient information on orthorexia, it is essential to conduct further research to determine the characteristics of high-risk groups. Taking the growing interest in a healthy lifestyle into account, there is a need to address the problem of orthorexia in the public space. Keywords: orthorexia, eating disorder, obsessive–compulsive spectrum disorder, nutritional behavio