The prevalence of abnormal eating behaviour in a representative sample of the French diabetic population

Aim. -To assess the relationship between abnormal eating behaviour(AEB) and diabetes in a sample of French adult patients with type 1 (T1D) and type 2 (T2D) diabetes. Methods. - Ninety-four consecutively recruited patients self-completed a series of validated questionnaires. Results. - Over one-fourth of men with T1D (26%) or T2D (27%) and 11% of female T2D patients reported consistent and pathological overeating or binge-eating during the previous six months. Glycaemic control in these T1D patients was poorer than in T1D patients defined as normal eaters (NORM) (11.9% versus 9.6%), but did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.08), and no significant difference was observed in the T2D group (P = 0.61) either. T2D patients reported being markedly more restrained when eating than did the T I D patients (P = 0.002), and their restraint increased along with their BMI (P < 0.001). Patients who overate or binged also reported greater general hunger (P=0.02) and disinhibition (P = 0.003) than did the NORM patients. Conclusion. - AEB is present in French diabetic patients at levels that are probably higher than among the general population. These results highlight the need for: (1) greater awareness among diabetes clinicians of the problem; (2) regular screening of diabetic patients for AEB; and (3) adaptation of therapeutic and dietary recommendations for this patient subgroup. (C) 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.