Choroszyński Mikołaj, Jurek Joanna Michalina, Mizia Sylwia, Hudaszek Kamil, Clavero-Mestres Helena, Auguet Teresa, Siennicka Agnieszka
Food Addiction Research Department, FitMIND Foundation, 03-435 Warsaw, Poland.
Grup de Recerca GEMMAIR (AGAUR)-Medicina Aplicada (URV), Departament de Medicina i Cirurgia, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), Institut d'Investigació Sanitària Pere Virgili (IISPV), Mallafré Guasch, 4, 43007 Tarragona, Spain.
Nutrients. 2025 Jun 12;17(12):1985. doi: 10.3390/nu17121985.
The rising consumption of ultra-processed foods, especially those high in added sugars, poses a growing public health concern. Although several tools exist to assess food addiction, there is a lack of validated instruments specifically designed to measure addiction-like behaviors related to sweet food intake.
This study evaluates the psychometric properties of the FitMIND Foundation Sweets Addiction Scale (FFSAS), adapted from the Yale Food Addiction Scale 2.0 (YFAS 2.0), using data from Polish adults recruited through the FitMIND Foundation.
The FFSAS was evaluated by 11 expert judges on four criteria: clarity, content validity, linguistic appropriateness, and construct representativeness. Afterwards, 344 adult volunteers (mean age 40.6 ± 10.7 years, 78% female, mean body mass index (BMI) 27.86 kg/m) completed online FFSAS and provided demographic data, BMI, and self-reported sweets consumption. Internal consistency was assessed with Cronbach's alpha and external validity was examined through Spearman's correlations. Moreover, we conducted Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses (EFA and CFA).
Content validity of the FFSAS was supported by expert validation. The scale demonstrated good overall internal consistency (α = 0.85), with specific criteria such as tolerance (α = 0.916) and withdrawal (α = 0.914) showing particularly high reliability. The FFSAS total score was moderately correlated with sweets consumption frequency (ρ = 0.39, < 0.05) and feelings of guilt (ρ = 0.35, < 0.05). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) revealed a robust three-factor structure, explaining 68.6% of the variance; the individual factors (subscales) derived from this structure demonstrated excellent internal consistency (Cronbach's α ranging from 0.951 to 0.962). Sampling adequacy was high based on Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin measure (KMO = 0.956). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) indicated suboptimal model fit (Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.74, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.69, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.14), with a significant chi-square test (χ = 3761.76, < 0.001).
This pilot study demonstrated that the FFSAS may be a promising tool for assessing sweet food addiction in adults. Future research should focus on assessing the FFSAS' suitability on more diverse populations in other countries for further validation.
超加工食品的消费量不断上升，尤其是那些添加糖含量高的食品，这引发了越来越多的公共卫生问题。尽管有几种工具可用于评估食物成瘾，但缺乏专门设计用于测量与甜食摄入相关的成瘾样行为的经过验证的工具。
本研究使用通过FitMIND基金会招募的波兰成年人的数据，评估了改编自耶鲁食物成瘾量表2.0（YFAS 2.0）的FitMIND基金会甜食成瘾量表（FFSAS）的心理测量特性。
11名专家评委根据四个标准对FFSAS进行了评估：清晰度、内容效度、语言适宜性和结构代表性。之后，344名成年志愿者（平均年龄40.6±10.7岁，78%为女性，平均体重指数（BMI）27.86kg/m）完成了在线FFSAS，并提供了人口统计学数据、BMI和自我报告的甜食消费量。用克朗巴哈系数评估内部一致性，通过斯皮尔曼相关性检验外部效度。此外，我们进行了探索性和验证性因素分析（EFA和CFA）。
FFSAS的内容效度得到了专家验证的支持。该量表显示出良好的总体内部一致性（α=0.85），耐受性（α=0.916）和戒断反应（α=0.914）等特定标准显示出特别高的可靠性。FFSAS总分与甜食消费频率（ρ=0.39，<0.05）和内疚感（ρ=0.35，<0.05）中度相关。探索性因素分析（EFA）揭示了一个稳健的三因素结构，解释了68.6%的方差；从该结构派生的各个因素（子量表）显示出优异的内部一致性（克朗巴哈系数范围为0.951至0.962）。根据凯泽-迈耶-奥尔金度量（KMO=0.956），抽样充分性较高。验证性因素分析（CFA）表明模型拟合欠佳（比较拟合指数（CFI）=0.74，塔克-刘易斯指数（TLI）=0.69，近似均方根误差（RMSEA）=0.14），卡方检验显著（χ=3761.76，<0.001）。
这项初步研究表明，FFSAS可能是评估成年人甜食成瘾的一个有前景的工具。未来的研究应侧重于评估FFSAS在其他国家更多样化人群中的适用性，以进行进一步验证。
