Situational characteristics of young adults’ eating occasions: a real-time data collection using Personal Digital Assistants
Open accessAbstract
Objective: To examine (i) situational characteristics of young adults’ eating occasions, including away-from-home eating, social influences and multi-tasking, and (ii) how these characteristics are associated with specific foods/beverages consumed. Design: Participants logged numerous characteristics of eating occasions (n 1237) in real time over 7 d. Setting: Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area (Minnesota, USA). Subjects: Forty-eight participants, aged 18–23 years. Results: Half of all eating occasions (46 %) occurred alone, 26 % occurred while watching television and 36 % involved other multi-tasking. Most participants (63 %) did not think about their food choices in advance of eating occasions. Eating that occurred in the absence of television viewing and/or other multi-tasking was less likely to include sweetened beverages and more likely to include items like water, fruit, vegetables, cereal, grains and entrées. Eating occasions occurring alone, and/or those occurring at home, were more likely to include snack foods that required little preparation (e.g. cookies, baked goods) and less likely to include more traditional meal items (e.g. fruits, vegetables, entrée items). Conclusions: Overall, a large proportion of young adults’ eating occasions occurred alone, while engaging in other activities and with little advanced planning. Although many young adults’ eating occasions consist of a wide range of highly processed, energy-dense, convenience products, more traditional meal settings (i.e. eating at home with others in the absence of multi-tasking) may result in more structured mealtimes and better food choices, such as more fruits and vegetables. Effective behavioural strategies promoting positive eating patterns, including home meal preparation, are urgently needed among young adults.
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Due to the current limited methods available to collect meal pattern data, most research to date has examined meal patterning, with relatively little focus on meal format and context.
“Due to the current limited methods available to collect meal pattern data, most research to date has examined meal patterning( 5 , 61 ), with relatively little focus on meal format( 29 ) and context( 32 ).”
From Understanding meal patterns: definitions, methodology and impact on nutrient intake and diet quality (2015) · cites this paper as [32]
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Understanding adults' eating patterns
Leech, R. M. (2017) · Own your potential (DEAKIN)
- Authors
- Laska, M. N., Graham, D., Moe, S. G., Lytle, L., & Fulkerson, J.
- Affiliations
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Corresponding author
- Laska, Melissa Nelson
- Venue
- Public Health Nutrition
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2010-12-08
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 472-479
- ISSN
- 1368-9800 (ISSN-L)
- 1475-2727
- PMC
- PMC3516625
- OpenAlex
- W2098210762
- Cited by
- 46
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 3.03
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Public Health Nutrition (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Cancer Institute (K07CA126837, U54CA116849, CA 116849)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Nutrition, Health and Food Behavior
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Consumer Attitudes and Food Labeling
- Keywords
- young adults, eating occasions, situational characteristics, social influences on eating, television viewing, sweetened beverages, snacks, home cooking
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Beverages, Energy Intake, Edible Grain, Data Collection, Feeding Behavior, Female, Fruit, Humans, Male, Minnesota, Television, Vegetables, Computers, Handheld, Young Adult, Drinking Water
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