Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 4, 2026

A Treatment Package without Escape Extinction to Address Food Selectivity
Published on: August 21, 2015
Food avoidance behaviors in individuals living with spinal cord injuries and disorders
Sherri L LaVela1, Gary J Farkas2, Allen W Heinemann3
1Center of Innovation for Complex Chronic Healthcare (CINCCH), Department of Veterans Affairs, Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital.
Purpose/Objective:
Research on food avoidance behaviors in individuals with chronic spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D) is scarce. The objective was to assess food avoidance, reasons, and associated variables in persons with chronic SCI/D.
Research Method/Design:
A cross-sectional survey was conducted. Bivariate and multivariable analyses identified variables associated with food avoidance.
Results:
Of 365 respondents, 63% engaged in food avoidance behaviors. Reasons included intentional weight loss (49%), lack of hunger cues (40%), fear of bowel complications (32%), fear of gastrointestinal concerns (26%), uninterested in food (26%), and lack of help needed to prepare/eat food (11%). Bivariate analysis showed that a greater proportion of individuals with SCI/D who engaged in food avoidance behaviors compared with those who did not had low blood pressure (29% vs. 19%), heart problems (13% vs. 5%), sleep problems (86% vs. 66%), musculoskeletal pain (82% vs. 63%), bowel complications (78% vs. 69%), bladder complications (77% vs. 65%), gastroesophageal reflux disease (49% vs. 30%), osteoporosis (37% vs. 24%), posttraumatic stress (35% vs. 16%), and loneliness (31% vs. 14%; all p < .05). Variables that remained independently associated with food avoidance in multivariable analysis included: heart conditions (OR = 3.09, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.18-8.12), gastroesophageal reflux disease (OR = 1.77, 95% CI: 1.05-2.97), musculoskeletal pain (OR = 2.00, 95% CI: 1.11-3.62), sleep problems (OR = 1.81, 95% CI: 1.01-3.30), and loneliness (OR = 2.19, 95% CI: 1.17-4.10; all p < .05).
Conclusions/Implications:
Many individuals with SCI/D engaged in food avoidance behaviors. Food avoidance may be a strategy people use to modify their diet to manage health conditions, or it may suggest disordered avoidant eating behaviors. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
Related Concept Videos
Taste Buds and Receptors
Inflammatory Bowel Disease III: Diagnostic Studies and Management I-Nutritional Therapy
Diagnostic studies
A colonoscopy is the definitive screening test, distinguishing ulcerative colitis from other colon diseases with similar symptoms. During a colonoscopy test, inflamed mucosa with exudate ulcerations can be observed, and biopsies are taken to determine the histologic characteristics of the...
Conditioned Taste Aversion
A notable characteristic of conditioned taste aversion is that it often requires only a single...
Binge Eating Disorders
Avoidance Learning and Learned Helplessness
Avoidance learning occurs when an organism learns that a specific behavior can prevent an unpleasant outcome. For example, a student who receives a bad grade may start studying harder to avoid future poor grades. This behavior persists even when the negative outcome is no longer present. Avoidance learning is powerful because it maintains behavior in the absence of the...
Bulimia Nervosa

