Examining the Clinical Correlates of Overeating and Binge-Eating Behaviors Among U. S.  Veterans

Abstract

Introduction Pressure to meet U.S. military weight requirements during service may predispose some service members to develop psychiatric disorders such as eating disorders or unhealthy eating behaviors, which may persist after military discharge. Specifically, research examining U.S. military veterans has found that in weight management programs, veterans with binge-eating behaviors have shown poor treatment outcomes. Overall, previous research suggests that veterans experience considerable and persistent disordered eating problems, and in addition may experience a higher prevalence of disordered eating in comparison to the general U.S. population. Research on Post-9/11 Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND) veterans is needed as this group frequently presents with high rates of medical and psychiatric disorders. The current study used clinician-administered structured interviews to examine relationships between psychiatric, health, and demographic variables in a sample of Post-9/11 OEF/OIF/OND veterans with binge-eating or overeating behavior or neither. Materials and Methods This article presents secondary analyses of the baseline phase from data obtained for the Survey of the Experiences of Returning Veterans. Using structured phone interviews, we cross-sectionally examined patterns of medical comorbidities between sociodemographic, health, eating, and psychiatric variables in 846 recently deployed U.S. veterans with binge-eating behaviors (reporting both overeating and loss of control [LOC] eating), overeating behaviors (overeating without LOC), or healthy controls (absence of any disordered eating). Study procedures were approved by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Institutional Review Boards, and informed consent was obtained from the participants. A series of chi-square and analysis of variance tests revealed significant bivariate between-group differences in sociodemographic, health, eating, and psychiatric variables. Variables with significant group differences (P < .05) were entered into a multinomial logistic regression to examine relationships between psychiatric, health, and eating factors and binge-eating severity. Results Results of the multinomial logistic regression analysis showed that women relative to men were less likely to overeat. When comparing the binge-eating group and controls, higher body mass index was associated with higher odds of binge eating. Furthermore, for the overeating group in comparison to controls, fasting behavior was associated with higher odds of overeating. For the psychiatric variables, the binge-eating and overeating groups were associated with higher rates of compulsive buying when compared to healthy controls. Additionally, the overeating group was associated with higher rates of alcohol dependence. Lastly, binge-eating and overeating behaviors were positively associated with specific psychiatric and health comorbidities. Conclusions Further research is needed to inform the development of effective treatments for disordered eating problems, as evidenced by an anticipated increase of veterans entering the VA healthcare system and the high rate of binge eating observed in our study and prior research in Post-9/11 veterans. Moreover, our study findings suggest the relevance of screening veterans for compulsive buying. This study was limited by its relatively small sample which only examined disordered eating behaviors. Future studies could simultaneously explore binge-eating behaviors and binge-eating disorder diagnoses in larger samples. Study strengths include a diverse sample of Post-9/11 veterans with sizable female representation.

The Role of Smartphone Addiction on Bed Procrastination and Mindful Eating Behavior in Adolescents

“…This research found that the risk of smartphone addiction could be the reason teenagers consume food because of negative emotional impulses. In other words, the risk of smartphone addiction has an impact on the emergence of emotional overeating behavior (Etuk et al, 2022). This is inversely proportional to the of mindful eating, where when teenagers apply mindful eating, the purpose of teenagers' eating is to fulfill their hunger needs, not to fulfill the negative emotions they feel (Framson et al, 2009).…”

Post‐traumatic consumption: Does emotion regulation moderate the relationship between military life stressors, mental health outcomes, and compulsive buying?

“…This finding adds to the growing body of evidence that self‐report can assess the onset of obsessive–compulsive behavior symptoms or highlight its potential for screening patients and determining best approaches for treatment (Rapp et al, 2016). These measures can thus be useful to military healthcare providers who are beginning to screen for maladaptive post‐traumatic consumption behaviors such as compulsive buying (Etuk et al, 2022).…”

“…The study focused on combat soldiers over the course of an operational deployment, a group not yet studied in this respect. Although there is no comprehensive research in the domain of compulsive buying within the military, growing concern about its association with other negative health outcomes has led to calls for servicemembers to be screened for it during medical encounters (Etuk et al, 2022).…”