Understanding comfort eating and how to prevent it across life
Official title: Comfort eating in the Eating in America Study: New insights to inform prevention and intervention efforts across the lifespan
Funded at National Opinion Research Center · NIH-11113824 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This project looks at how comfort eating starts and what can help prevent it in teens and adults.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R21 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | National Opinion Research Center NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Chicago, United States) |
| Project start | May 1, 2023 |
| Project end | April 30, 2027 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $151,584 |
| NIH project number | 5R21DK134906-03 |
| Project ID | NIH-11113824 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal participants are adolescents and adults who sometimes eat in response to stress or negative emotions, including people with overweight, obesity, or family risk for type 2 diabetes.
✕Less likely to help
People whose eating is not related to stress or who have medical conditions unrelated to diet or weight are unlikely to directly benefit from this project.
What this research studies
If you take part, researchers will ask about your eating habits, stress, mood, and confidence in resisting comfort foods and will collect basic weight/height information. They will compare these measures across adolescence into adulthood to see when comfort eating develops and how it links to body weight and diabetes risk. The team will also look at which personal or social factors relate to people feeling able to avoid comfort eating. Findings will be used to guide prevention and intervention approaches aimed at reducing unhealthy eating over the lifespan.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could inform programs that reduce weight gain and lower the chance of developing type 2 diabetes by preventing unhealthy comfort eating.
How similar studies have gone: Previous interventions aimed at reducing comfort eating have shown small or mixed results, so this work builds on limited and inconsistent evidence.
Where this research is happening
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National Opinion Research Center
Chicago, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Finch, Laura Elizabeth — National Opinion Research Center
- Study coordinator: Finch, Laura Elizabeth
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.