Background: Obesity is increasingly severe all over the world. With the development of the society, people tend to less eating time, perhaps because of longer working hours. Some studies showed that there was the association between eating rate and obesity. Yet, these studies are under‐researched.
Objective: To explore if there is a positive association between eating rate and overweight or obesity using a systematic review.
Method: I systematically reviewed relevant studies examining the association between eating rate and overweight or obesity published between 1st Jan., 2000 and 20th May, 2014 in PubMed, 万方 and 中国知网 databases using relevant key word search. There were no restriction in the study designs and population characteristics and animal studies were excluded.
Results: Thirteen (13) studies were included in the systematic review. Among these 13 studies, 11 were English and 2 were Chinese. Eleven (11) studies were cross-sectional studies and the remaining 2 studies were longitudinal studies. The sample size ranges from 61 to 14,176, and from different parts of the world. The studies included used various exposures and outcomes to assess the association between fast eating and obesity. For example, exposures varied from self‐reported eating rate to calculated bite rate, and outcomes varied from body mass index (BMI) to six skinfold thickness. All 13 studies showed a positive association between the speed of eating and overweight or obesity.
Discussion: This systematic review suggested a positive association between eating rate and obesity. However, given a lot of studies only used a cross‐sectional study design, more research is needed to explore the causal relationship between these two factors, possibly longitudinal and experimental studies. Such evidence would be important for relevant public health policies such public awareness to slow down eating rate. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health
Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HKU/oai:hub.hku.hk:10722/206906 |
Date | January 2014 |
Creators | Ding, Qiufang, 丁秋昉 |
Publisher | The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) |
Source Sets | Hong Kong University Theses |
Language | English |
Detected Language | English |
Type | PG_Thesis |
Rights | Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License, The author retains all proprietary rights, (such as patent rights) and the right to use in future works. |
Relation | HKU Theses Online (HKUTO) |
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