Evaluation of Eating Behaviour in Obese Children

Abstract

Introduction: The aim of this study is to determine the differences in eating behaviour characteristics between the obese children and the normal-weight children.Material and Methods: The parents of 149 children and adolescents whose ages ranging between 8 and 17 years among those (n=217) who referred for any reason to our outpatient clinics of health & diseases of obese children & adolescents and followed up by our clinic were partici-pated in our study. The children’s eating behaviour ques-tionnaire developed by Wardle et.al. was administered to all participants by means of face to face interviews. This questionnaire gives information about 8 various eating behaviours which are food responsiveness, appetite/enjoyment of food, emotional overeating, appetite for drinks, satiety responsiveness, slowness in eating, emoti-onal undereating and fussiness. The behaviour patterns of the excessive appetite indicators such as food enthusiasm, emotional overeating, excessive enjoyment of food, drin-king passion, and the lack of appetite indicators like toughness enthusiastic, slowness in eating, emotional undereating, food selectivity were evaluated. 35 questions have been submitted to the survey respondents.Results: Statistically significantly higher scores were obta-ined in obese children (p<0.001) in the subdimensions of behaviour patterns of the excessive appetite indicators like food enthusiasm, emotional binge eating, excessive enjoy-ment of food and drinking passion. However in normal-weight children scores obtained in the subdimensions of behaviour patterns obtained in the constructs of lack of appetite such as toughness/enthusiasm, slow eating, emoti-onal under-eating, food selectivity were significantly high when compared with obese children (p<0.001).Discussion and Conclusion: There are very important differences between the normal-weight, and obese child-ren in terms of eating behaviours. Eating behaviour seems to be a facilitating factor for the development of obesity.