Disordered eating in office workers is correlated with trauma, stress, emotional regulation, and sleep quality: a cross-sectional screening

Eating and feeding disorders (EDs) are a heterogeneous group of pathologies accompanied by important metabolic and psychiatric comorbidities that occur most frequently among the young but also appear in adulthood. Consequently, they can have a high impact on the quality of life and productivity. In the workplace, they are associated with traumatic events, stress, and sleep problems. Office workers who are not engaged in night shifts are an ideal sample for studying the relationship between sleep problems and EDs, since the confounding factor of night work can be excluded. This study is a survey of office workers undergoing health surveillance over a one-year period. Participants (463 out of a total of 489) completed the Short Version of the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-QS) to screen for EDs, the Effort/Reward Imbalance (ERI) questionnaire for stress, the Goldberg's Anxiety and Depression Scale (GADS) for mental health, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for sleep quality, two items from the Stop-Bang questionnaire to screen for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), and some questions concerning trauma, violence, motor vehicle accidents, and injuries. The prevalence of suspected EDs was 6% (CI 95% 4.1; 8.6). According to the body mass index, all suspected cases were affected by overeating. On the basis of non-smoking, regular physical activity, and adherence to appropriate alcohol and eating behaviors, only 1.9% of the cohort was classified as having a healthy lifestyle. Suspected EDs reported experiencing significantly more life trauma (OR = 4.47, CI 95% 1.99; 10.04), domestic injuries (OR = 3.89, CI 95% 1.04; 14.56), assaults (OR = 4.36, CI 95% 1.35; 14.07), and near-miss driving accidents (OR = 3.32, CI 95% 1.26; 8.76) than their colleagues in the previous year. They also reported higher levels of work-related stress than their colleagues (OR 5.38, CI 95% 2.29; 12.63), worse sleep quality (OR = 1.31, CI 95% 1.18; 1.46), and higher levels of anxiety (OR = 1.41, CI 95% 1.23; 1.62) and depression (OR = 1.55, CI 95% 1.33; 1.81). OSA symptoms were present in 25% of suspected EDs. A multivariate logistic regression model indicated that trauma and depression were most strongly associated with suspected ED cases. Health promotion in office workers should be based on sleep hygiene, stress reduction, and emotional trauma counseling.