Background: The purpose of this study was to determine whether night eating tendency is associated with any health risk factors or metabolic indices.
Methods: A total of 1,087 subjects (590 men and 497 women) who visited a Health Promotion Center at a general hospital from January to December 2004 was included. They completed two self reported questionnaires for screening eating disorders and night eating syndrome (NES). According to the presence of evening hyperphagia, we investigated the association between night eating tendency and any health risk factors or metabolic indices.
Results: The mean age of study subjects was 42.0 ± 9.0 years, the frequency of NES was 1.1%(12 of 1,087; 10 men & 2 women). In univariate analysis, diet habit, stress, age, smoking, alcohol, and depression, and in multivariate analysis, age (P < 0.05), smoking (P < 0.05), alcohol (P < 0.01), and depression (P < 0.01) had a statistically significant association with night eating tendency. There was no significant difference in metabolic indices according to night eating tendency.
Conclusion: Night eating tendency is related to young age, current smoking, moderate to heavy alcohol drinking, and mild depressive trait. Further studies involving a more representative general population are needed to reveal the long-term clinical significances of NES.

Keywords: night eating syndrome, night eating tendency, evening hyperphagia, risk factors, metabolic index