Loss of control eating in adolescents from the community

Loss of control (LOC) eating is a salient indicator of eating disorder psychopathology in adolescents and is associated with marked distress. While research has focused on the relevance of episode size, clinical significance of LOC eating frequency has rarely been explored. Therefore, this study aimed at identifying LOC eating prevalence with respect to its recurrence and associated variables in a community-based sample.

Participants were 1,643 adolescents, aged 12-20 years (62.4% female). Based on EDE-Q self-report, participants were categorized as those reporting recurrent (N = 156; 9.5%), nonrecurrent (N = 226; 13.8%), and no LOC eating (N = 1261; 76.7%).

Adolescents with recurrent LOC eating reported clinically relevant and significantly greater eating disorder psychopathology, functional impairment, and distress because of LOC eating, and a significantly higher body mass index (BMI, kg/m(2) ) than adolescents with nonrecurrent and those without LOC eating.

These results underline that LOC eating is a common eating behavior among adolescents in the community associated with clinical characteristics of eating disorders, and could therefore be a risk factor for developing full- or partial-syndrome eating disorders. Further research on the classification of eating disorders in adolescents with LOC eating and severity indicators is warranted.