Association between hedonic hunger and food addiction: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Aims: In recent years, food addiction has gained significant interest from the scientific community. Hedonic hunger has been identified as a crucial risk factor contributing to food addiction. Therefore, this systematic review and meta-analysis aim to consolidate the current evidence regarding the relationship between hedonic hunger and food addiction among healthy individuals. Data synthesis: A comprehensive search was conducted across three databases - PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus - up to October 2024. The review included all original observational studies published in English that utilized the Power of Food Scale (PFS) to measure hedonic hunger and the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) along with its derivatives to evaluate food addiction in healthy participants. The quality of the studies was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute checklist. The meta-analysis was performed using StataMP-17 software. Following the screening process, seven cross-sectional studies comprising a total of 2518 participants were included. The findings from the meta-analysis revealed a positive and statistically significant correlation between the score of PFS and the score of YFAS (r = 0.53, 95 % CI: 0.35, 0.71). Furthermore, the meta-regression analysis indicated that the percentage of female participants and sample size did not significantly affect the relationship between hedonic hunger and food addiction. Conclusions: Given the established positive association, it may be advantageous to consider the impact of hedonic hunger in strategies aimed at managing food addiction.