Binge Eating and Quality of Life: Analysis of Gender and Ethnicity

Abstract

Changing in eating activities as social interaction and for expressing emotions may affect the desire to eat large amounts of food, and when it goes out of control, the eater then regrets it; this is called binge eating. Binge eating causes a decrease in the quality of life or well-being of a person. QOL is often considered a standard of living by most people and is considered a cross-cultural problem. This study aims to examine the relationship between binge eating and quality of life. This correlation is also compared across to distinguish gender and ethnicity. The participants were 553 undergraduate students in Semarang, Indonesia. The data were analyzed using the correlational method and t-tests. The findings showed that binge eating has a negative correlation with quality of life. This study also found that there was no gender difference in binge eating and quality of life. Although there was no difference in binge eating and quality of life among various ethnicities, the majority of them experienced severe binge eating