Analyzing eating styles based on DEBQ in a complex way - analyzing the associations between the eating styles and background variables

Abstract

AIM OF THE PAPER
Overweight and obesity is an endemic that appears in the developed countries of the world. In the national and international literature more authors deal with the research of the dimensions of healthy lifestyle either in a complex way or focusing on a special area (e. g. smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity or eating behavior). The most widely used test is the DEBQ (Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire). This scale were validated in more countries on the population with nonnal weight and overweight obese individuals and three types of eating behavior were identified, namely emotional eating, restrained eating and external eating. The aim of this study is to introduce the adaptation possibilities of DEBQ measuring eating habits.

METHODOLOGY
Quantitative questionnaires were conducted. In an empirical research 404 adult people were interviewed, males and females belonging to the X and Y generations.

MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS
In the empirical research the authors managed to identify emotional and restrained eating habits in Hungary, but in case of external eating three different factors could be distinguished: the effect of taste, the effect of smell and the effect of society. There is a positive correlation between the importance of healthy lifestyle and restrained eating. Those who are satisfied with their weight are not retrained eaters. There is a significant positive correlation between the effect of taste and the love of eating. There is significant difference between the frequencies of noshery and restrained eating, and the effect of smell and taste.

RECOMMENDATIONS
In the future the authors plan to extend the research to examine different relationships with BMI and segment the population based on their eating styles in order to develop an effective marketing program for them. Analyzing the heterogeneous groups and describing them to understand their behavior will give a helping hand to the decision makers. Focusing to that phenomenon which has an effect to their decision making process is the key assumptions of the research. Using the results we can apply that kind of strategy which is more effective.