Vol. 1, Issue 8, Part L (2015)

Abstract
Adults with obesity are at greater risk of developing eating disorders (EDs), and often the symptoms are unidentified and untreated. Tools or instruments have been developed by the psychologist specifically to screen and diagnose eating disorders in normal and obese individuals. This study was aimed to determine the prevalence of food addiction and binge eating behaviors’ among obese women. Total of 155 adult grade I obese women (BMI > 30 kg/m2) aged between 20 and 40 years living in urban areas of Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India were selected as respondents for the study based on purposive sampling method. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ – 12) and Eating Disorder Inventory (EDI – 64) were used to measure the eating disorder occurrence among the respondents and Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) and Binge Eating Disorder Questionnaire (BED – 16) were used to assess the prevalence of food addiction and binge eating behavior in the respondents. Data on socioeconomic background of the respondents were collected using scheduled questionnaire. The results were analyzed statistically using chi square test. GHQ 12 and EDI 64 analysis revealed that majority of the respondents (65.8%) had poor mental health and 24.5 percent of them were victims of eating disorder respectively. Food addiction among the respondents was 62.6 percent and 63 percent of them had severe binging habits which may be due to body dissatisfaction, ineffectiveness, interpersonal distrust etc. The findings suggest that eating disorders are widely prevalent among obese individuals and more focus needed on channelizing mental disorder or illness associated to obesity.