Weight excess and obesity are associated with binge eating behaviours in people with HIV.

OBJECTIVE: Binge eating (BE) is a mental health disorder related to weight gain (WG), whose prevalence/correlation with weight excess in people with HIV (PWH) have been scarcely investigated.Design: A cross-sectional study of PWH who underwent the validated Binge eating scale (BES) questionnaire. METHODS: We included adult PWH during routine visits from October 2022 to February 2023. The BES questionnaire was administered with the support of a psychiatrist (score <17 BE very unlikely, BE≥17 possible/very likely). We performed a logistic regression for the binary outcome BES≥17 and being overweighted/obese as effect measure of risk association, and then adjusted for possible confounders (as integrase inhibitor exposure) and performed a sensitivity analysis fitting the regression model including and excluding depression (which may drive BE). RESULTS: We included 1204 PWH, 75.2% males, median age 53 years (IQR:44-60), 95.6% with undetectable HIV-RNA. As for BMI, we had overweight and obesity in 35.1% and 19.4% cases. Considering BES, 1089 (90.4%) PWH had a score<17, 115 (9.6%) ≥17. Multivariable analysis showed that obesity (OR = 6.21, p�< 0.0001), overweight (OR = 2.21, p = 0.006) and depression (OR�=�1.98, p�=�0.028) were significantly associated with high BES score. By excluding depression, our results were confirmed, and obesity/overweight remained significantly associated with BE (obesity OR = 6.58, p < 0.0001, overweight OR = 2.17, p = 0.023). CONCLUSIONS: BE should be considered among possible causes of WG in PWH. Our results push towards an in-depth study of this topic for a better understanding of the phenomenon in PWH, possibly identifying subgroups of this population who could benefit from a psychoeducational/psychological intervention to preventing WG.