Association between depression and eating behaviors among bariatric surgery candidates in a Turkish sample

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore further whether depression is associated with problematic eating behaviors in a sample of Turkish bariatric surgery candidates. Methods This descriptive study included 168 consecutively seen bariatric surgery candidates in a university bariatric surgery outpatient. Participants were asked to complete the Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire (DEBQ), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and surveys assessing sociodemographic and clinical variables. Correlations and linear regression analyses were performed to evaluate the relationship between clinical and demographic variables. Results Participants had a mean age 37.7 ± 11.3 years and BMI of 46.4 ± 6.7 kg/m 2 (SD = 6.7). According to BDI scores, 75.5 % of the patients had mild, moderate, or severe depressive symptomatology. Lower levels of depressive symptoms were associated with higher levels of restrictive eating ( r = −0.17; p = 0.04), whereas higher levels of depressive symptoms were associated with more frequent eating in response to both internal ( r = 0.3; p = 0.002) and external ( r = 0.2; p = 0.04) cues. The BDI scores were significantly associated with increased external eating ( ß = 0.03, p