Night eating and night eating syndrome: associations with dysfunctional eating behaviors, mental health and quality-of-life measures in Australian adults

To our knowledge this is the first study in a representative adult general population examining the relationships between night eating (NE), NE syndrome (NES) and binge eating, purging, strict dieting and general anxiety or general depression. Those with a history of binge eating and having poorer MHRQoL and PHRQoL have higher likelihoods of experiencing NE. The same associations of these factors except for that of PHRQoL were found with NES. Revisions of diagnostic schemes may consider these findings in the context of delineation of boundaries between eating disorder syndromes. As the nature of overeating is defined more broadly in NES than in other eating disorders it is important to explore all forms of overeating when undertaking estimates of the population prevalence and burden of eating disorder.