The global prevalence of emotional eating in overweight and obese populations: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review aims to investigate the current prevalence of emotional eating and its associated factors in overweight and obese populations. We included studies that (1) reported prevalence of emotional eating; (2) were in the context of weight gain or overweight and obesity; (3) used a validated psychometric tool to assess emotional eating; (4) were published as an internationally referred journal article and (5) were reported in the English language. Articles were searched on eight electronic databases (CINAHL, EMBASE, PsychINFO, ProQuest, PubMed, Scopus, The Cochrane Library and Web of Science) from the journals' inception to 11 April 2024. A total of 18 studies, representing a total of 21,237 people, were included in the review. Our study suggested that emotional eating is significantly prevalent at 44.9%. High heterogeneity observed (I²: 98.7%) can be attributed to differences in measurement tools for emotional eating, but not differences in geographical regions. By providing insight to the current prevalence of emotional eating and its relevant factors, this study outlines the steps to take in future research and practice to tackle emotional eating and related health issues like obesity. There is a need to develop standardized measurement tools for emotional eating, and further investigate sociodemographic factors.