Night eating syndrome, ultra processed food consumption and digital addiction: a cross-sectional study among university students in Turkey.

Background: The university period is an important period in which eating habits and lifestyles are shaped, digital addiction due to digital media use increases, and psychosocial changes are observed. During this period, in addition to changes university students eating behavior, unhealthy eating behavior trends such as increased night time eating behavior and increased consumption of ultra-processed foods can be observed. This cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the relationship between night eating syndrome, ultra-processed food consumption and digital addiction in university students.

Methods: This descriptive and cross-sectional study was conducted with 2512 university students with a mean age of 21.36 ± 2.04. The research data were collected by the researchers via a web-based survey form (Google form) created using the snowball sampling method, email and whatsapp. Demographic characteristics of the participants (gender, age, living space), eating behaviors (number of main and snacks), frequency of eating using visual mediaregular physical activity, daytime and nighttime sleep durations, digital media usage time, and anthropometric measurements (body weight and height) were examined. Ultra-processed food consumption was assessed with the screening questionnaire of highly processed food consumption. The Night Eating Questionnaire (NEQ) was used to measure the severity of Night Eating Syndrome and the digital addiction scale was used to measure digital addiction. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 27.0) software was used for all analyses.

Results: In this study, correlations were found between the total score of the night eating scale and the total score of the Digital Addiction Scale, the total score of ultra-processed food consumption, BMI, daytime sleep duration, nighttime sleep duration and time spent on digital media (r = 0.202, r = 0.177, r = 0.101, r = 0.100, r=-0.080, r = 0.094 respectively). Digital Addiction Scale total score It was determined that it was significantly affected by possible variables such as gender, night sleep duration, Night Eating Syndrome Scale total score, digital media use and ultra processed food consumption (p < 0.001). Similarly, the total score of the Night Eating Syndrome Scale, It was found that it was significantly affected by possible variables such as gender, body mass index (BMI), night sleep time, daytime sleep time and Digital Addiction Scale total score (p < 0.001).

Conclusions: This study highlights a relationship between digital addiction, night eating syndrome and ultra-processed food consumption. Our study suggests that this eating disorder, Night Eating Syndrome, may be affected by possible variables such as gender, body mass index (BMI), night sleep duration, daytime sleep duration, and digital addiction. These findings offer a different perspective in developing strategies for the prevention and management of NES in university students.