Risk assessment of night-eating syndrome occurrence in women in Poland, considering the obesity factor in particular

Dominik Olejniczak,1 Dorota Bugajec,2 Anna Staniszewska,3 Mariusz Panczyk,4 Aleksandra Kielan,1 Aleksandra Czerw,1 Marta MaÅ„czuk,5 Grzegorz Juszczyk,1 Joanna Skonieczna,1 Anna Brytek-Matera6 1Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Science, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; 2Students’ Scientific Public Health Association, Health Promotion Section, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; 3Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland; 4Division of Teaching and Outcomes of Education, Faculty of Health Science, Warsaw Medical University, Warsaw, Poland; 5Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, Maria Sklodowska-Curie Institute – Oncology Center, Warsaw, Poland; 6Katowice Faculty, SWPS University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Warsaw, Poland Introduction: Night-eating syndrome (NES) involves uncontrolled and most often repeated binge eating during the night. It is related with mood disorders as well as sleep disorders and it may cause obesity. Risks related to NES are obesity, binge eating disorder, bulimia nervosa, affective disorders, and sleep disorders. The objective of this study is to analyze eating habits in terms of the risk assessment of NES occurrence in the population of women in the Masovian Voivodeship (in Poland). Patients and methods: Six hundred and eleven women living in the Masovian Voivodeship participated in the study. The average age of the respondents was 22.7 years (median = 23.0; interquartile range = 3.0). The Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ) was used to assess the risk of NES. Results: In the studied group of women, 1.3% of cases (N = 12) reached a NEQ total score of ≥25, which indicates a probability of 40.7% for NES, while 0.7% (N = 4) reached a score of ≥30, which indicates a probability of 72.2% for occurrence of this syndrome. The highest average total score was observed in the group of obese people. The level of ed