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. 2021 May 13;20:45. doi: 10.1186/s12937-021-00701-9

Table 3.

Appetitive traits in the full sample and by anxiety symptom severity

All Participants (n = 1243) Mild to no anxiety symptoms (n = 598) Moderate to severe anxiety symptomsa (n = 645) Effect Size
AEBQ Scales Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD pb Cohen’s d
Food approach traits
 Hunger 3.10 0.75 2.98 0.74 3.21 0.75 < 0.01 0.31
 Food responsiveness 3.18 0.75 3.08 0.73 3.27 0.75 < 0.01 0.25
 Emotional over-eating 2.85 1.01 2.69 0.93 2.99 1.05 < 0.01 0.30
 Enjoyment of food 4.14 0.80 4.24 0.71 4.04 0.86 < 0.01 0.25
Food avoidance traits
 Satiety responsiveness 2.74 0.82 2.66 0.77 2.81 0.86 < 0.01 0.17
 Emotional under-eating 3.11 0.96 3.03 0.89 3.18 1.02 < 0.01 0.16
 Food fussiness 2.03 0.84 1.95 0.79 2.11 0.88 < 0.01 0.19
 Slowness in eating 2.71 1.01 2.66 0.94 2.75 1.06 0.23 0.08

aModerate to severe symptoms of anxiety defined as GAD-7 score > 10; bIndependent samples t-tests with equal variance comparing AEBQ scores by anxiety symptom severity category