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. 2021 Nov 23:14:3233-3242.
doi: 10.2147/JMDH.S339007. eCollection 2021.

Prevalence of Binge-Eating Disorder and Its Association with Nicotine Dependence Among Under-Graduate Students at a Saudi Public University

Khalid A Bin Abdulrahman  1 , Nawaf S Alenazi  1 , Hasan Z Alshehry  1 , Saad B Albishri  1
Affiliations

Prevalence of Binge-Eating Disorder and Its Association with Nicotine Dependence Among Under-Graduate Students at a Saudi Public University

Khalid A Bin Abdulrahman et al. J Multidiscip Healthc. .

Abstract

Purpose: There is minimal information regarding the prevalence of binge-eating disorders in Saudi Arabia. This study aims to measure the prevalence of BED and its association with nicotine dependency (ND) among undergraduate university students at Imam Mohammad Ibn Saud Islamic University (IMSIU).

Methods: A cross-sectional study recruited 878 participants, with an inclusion criteria that encompassed all IMSIU undergraduate students of either sex. The online-based self-report questionnaire was distributed through e-mail, which used the Binge-Eating Disorder Screener-7 (BEDS-7) to evaluate BED symptoms and the Fagerstrom Test of Nicotine Dependence (FTND) to measure the levels of ND. The e-FTND version was also adapted into the questionnaire to account for modern methods of nicotine usage.

Results: A total of 165 participants were BED positive, with a prevalence of 18.8%, 99 of whom were women, and 66 were men. Women were significantly more predicted for BED than men (p = 0.035). Men appeared to be mainly more expected to be nicotine dependent (p < 0.001). BED positive participants showed a higher probability of being nicotine dependent than BED negative participants in the multivariate logistic regression analysis (95% CI 1.3-3.2; p = 0.002).

Conclusion: BED prevalence was notably high compared to worldwide estimates, with a significant association to nicotine dependence by the multivariate analysis. In the future, more investigations regarding the prevalence of specific types of eating disorders, including BED, in Saudi Arabia need to be considered.

Keywords: Saudi Arabia; binge-eating disorder; eating disorders; nicotine dependence; students.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The association between university students’ body mass index classification with their multivariate mean predicted probability of having binge-eating disorder.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The association between university students’ age group with their likelihood of having nicotine dependence.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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