Food-related attentional bias and its associations with appetitive motivation and body weight: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Hardman, Charlotte, Jones, Andrew, Burton, Sam, Duckworth, Jay ORCID: 0000-0002-9475-5839, McGale, Lauren ORCID: 0000-0002-7898-9846, Mead, Bethan ORCID: 0000-0002-9294-517X, Roberts, Carl ORCID: 0000-0003-4275-601X, Field, Matt and Werthmann, Jessica ORCID: 0000-0002-2312-1249 (2020) Food-related attentional bias and its associations with appetitive motivation and body weight: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/ng34q

Abstract

<p>Theoretical models suggest that food-related visual attentional bias (AB) may be related to appetitive motivational states and individual differences in body weight; however, findings in this area are equivocal. We conducted a systematic review and series of meta-analyses to determine if there is a positive association between food-related AB and: (1.) body mass index (BMI) (number of effect sizes (k)=110), (2.) hunger (k=98), (3.) subjective craving for food (k=35), and (4.) food intake (k=44). Food-related AB was robustly associated with craving (r = .134 (95% CI .061, .208); p < .001), food intake (r = .085 (95% CI .038, .132); p < .001), and hunger (r = .048 (95% CI .016, .079); p = .003), but these correlations were small. Food-related AB was unrelated to BMI (r =.008 (95% CI -.020, .035); p = .583) and this result was not moderated by type of food stimuli, method of AB assessment, or the subcomponent of AB that was examined. Furthermore, in a between-groups analysis (k = 22) which directly compared participants with overweight/obesity to healthy-weight control groups, there was no evidence for an effect of weight status on food-related AB (Hedge’s g = 0.104, (95% CI -0.050, 0.258); p =.186). Taken together, these findings suggest that food-related AB is sensitive to changes in the motivational value of food, but is unrelated to individual differences in body weight. Our findings question the traditional view of AB as a trait-like index of preoccupation with food and have implications for novel theoretical perspectives on the role of food AB in appetite control and obesity.</p>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Prevention, Clinical Research, Obesity, Nutrition, Stroke, Oral and gastrointestinal, Cardiovascular, Cancer, Metabolic and endocrine, 2 Zero Hunger
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	27 Sep 2022 09:02
Last Modified:	14 Mar 2024 20:18
DOI:	10.31234/osf.io/ng34q
Open Access URL:	https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33039507/
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3164932