Snacking in context: we’re not all the same

Abstract

Background: Snacking on high-calorie foods contributes to weight gain and obesity. There are many environmental cues to eating, including the physical or social environment, and current activity or behaviour. Identifying contexts associated with unhealthy consumption in real-time could provide important information for optimising interventions. The present study aimed to monitor high-calorie snacking in real-time, and to determine the social, environmental, and contextual correlates of this behaviour. Methods: Over 7 days, 65 adults (50F, mean age = 38.9 years) recorded intake of energy-dense high-calorie snacks, physical location (home, work, outdoors, car, shop/pub/restaurant/café, other), social context (alone, friends, family, colleagues, other) and current activity (work, domestic chores, childcare, socialising, travelling, TV/computer, sports/exercise, eating/drinking, nothing, other) hourly on wrist-mounted electronic diaries. The proportion of time in each context spent snacking was calculated across the whole group, and for each individual. Results: After adjusting for time spent in each context, snacking frequencies outside meal-times for the whole group were generally highest whilst at home (snacking during 15.3% of total time spent at home), with friends (16.7%), and whilst socialising (19.9%). However, these proportions varied substantially across individuals: home (range = 0% – 41.2%); friends (0% – 50%); socialising (0% – 55.6%). Many individuals snacked only in one specific context. Conclusions: Contextual correlates of snacking are markedly different across individuals with many individuals snacking in single, identifiable contexts. Tailoring interventions to individualised patterns of behaviour may improve their efficacy in reducing unhealthy snacking.