The relationship between Impulsivity and Body Mass Index: The role of mediational food addiction

Impulsiveness has been robustly associated with alcohol and drug misuse, but have received little attention in the context of food addiction. The goal of the current study was to examine the interrelationships between impulsiveness, food addiction, and Body Mass Index (BMI).
The design of this project was correlational. 60 female students selected using available sampling among female students of Shiraz University.They completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale to assess impulsive personality traits, the Yale Food Addiction Scale to assess patterns of addictive consumption of food and provided weight and height to generate BMI. To analyze the data, the software of SPSS22 and AMOS22, the statistical methods of descriptive indexes and path analysis were conducted.
Impulsiveness predicted food addiction (F= 17, > ρ 0.0001) and BMI (F= 1, > ρ 0.0001), also food addiction predicted BMI (F= 1.06, > ρ 0.0001). Impulsivity was found to be indirectly associated with BMI by way of associations with addictive consumption of food (RMSEA= 0.0001).
Dispositional impulsivity, routinely associated with high-risk behaviors including addictive consumption of alcohol and drugs, may be an important risk factor when considering tendency to engage in addictive consumption of food. Monitoring food addiction symptoms early may help reduce the likelihood that compulsive food consumption patterns result in weight gain and obesity.