This study is centered around the association between child abuse victimization and food addiction. According to the research child abuse is  somehow connected to the increase in obesity risk in adulthood. The Nurses’ Health Study II is a survey that was used to measure physical and sexual child abuse histories in the year 2001 along with the food addiction in 2009.

The study found that 8% of the participants in the sample reported physical abuse during childhood while 5.3% reported sexual abuse. Additionally, the study found that 8% of the sample met the criteria for food addiction. Severe physical and sexual abuse during childhood were associated with 90% of increases in food addiction risk.

The study concluded that a history of child abuse is strongly associated with food addiction in the sample studied. While this study reports numeric results, it lacks in-depth interviews. There is a hole in the explanation and analysis of the data. Food addiction could be a symptom of childhood abuse or something completely independent. Whether food is used as a cope mechanism for the childhood abuse and or post traumatic distress, remains unknown in this particular study. This study does not pursue this information fully. What we find is that the specific sample that was dissected and studied happens to have a portion that has a food addiction and were victims to childhood abuse. This does not mean that because of one factor, the other factor will increase, necessarily.

“Abuse Victimization in Childhood or Adolescence and Risk of Food Addiction in Adult Women.” Wiley Online Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Mar. 2016. <http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.20500/full>.