NIGHT EATING SYNDROME IN YOUNG ADOLESCENTS: FREQUENCY AND SIGNIFICANCE

INTRODUCTION: Night Eating Syndrome (NES) was first described in 1955 and recently categorized in DSM-V. The prevalence is 1.5-5.7% in general population and reaches up to 5.7% in young adolescents. The aim of study is to determine the prevalence of NES in university students and related factors with NES. METHODS: 179 university students (17 male, 162 female) was enrolled to this cross-sectional study. Data were obtained by a questionnaire applied to face to face. Questionnaires includes socio-demographic features, medical history and an anthropometric parameters of participants. To evaluate of NES, Turkish version of the Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ) was used. Statistical analysis was performed by using SPSS 17.0. All descriptive statistics were reported as mean ± SD. p values < 0.05 were considered as a statistically significant. RESULTS: Nineteen participants (10.6 %) met the criteria of NES. There were no significant differences between NES and non-NES group according to gender, age or Body Mass Index (BMI) groups. Also, there was no correlation between BMI and NEQ points of participants (r=0.03; p=0.690). DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: In conclusion, this study impact that NES was high in Turkish university students. So assessing the presence of NES in young adolescents may help to found out other psychiatric and eating disorders.