Associations of food addiction symptomatology with bariatric surgical attrition: a cross-sectional analysis

Background: Despite the effectiveness of bariatric surgery, there remains a high rate of attrition from surgical programs, highlighting the need to understand factors that influence presurgical attrition rates. Objectives: To investigate the association between food addiction (FA) symptomatology and attrition from bariatric surgery. Setting: Surgical weight-loss program at a single academic medical center. Methods: Data for this analysis were collected from August 2020 until August 2022. Measures included sociodemographic variables, mental health, eating assessments, and FA symptomatology. Data were analyzed using a combination of descriptive statistics, univariable logistic regressions, and a multivariable stepwise logistic regression model. Results: A total of 505 adult patients were included (76.98% female, mean age 42.61 years, 263 [52.08%] undergoing surgery). FA scores were significantly and positively correlated with surgical attrition, current food insecurity, anxiety and depression symptoms, internalized weight bias, lower dietary quality, and distress and impairment due to FA. In the multivariable model, only current food insecurity, depressive symptoms, internalized weight bias, and impairment caused by FA were significant predictors of surgical attrition. Conclusions: Although the number of FA symptoms was not associated in the multivariable model, impairment attributable to FA remained a significant predictor of surgical attrition. This trend suggests that an evaluation of FA may reflect a complex network of factors. Further, FA may not be a predictor of surgical attrition in the absence of perceived clinically significant impairment. Additional research should explore the relationship between impairment attributable to FA and surgical attrition to test the generalizability of these findings.