Tracking snacking in real time: time to look at individualised patterns of behaviour
Tracking snacking in real time: time to look at individualised patterns of behaviour
Background: identifying when and where people overeat is important for intervention design, yet little is known about how unhealthy behaviours unfold in real life.
Aim: to track the activities, social contexts and locations that co-occur with unhealthy snacking.
Methods: 64 adults (49F, mean age= 38.6 years) used electronic diaries to record snacking, location, social context and current activity every waking hour over 7 days. The proportion of snacking episodes that co-occurred with each location/activity/context were calculated by group and individual.
Results: over the group, snacking was most frequent whilst socialising (19.9% of hours spent socialising) or using the TV/computer (19.7%), when with friends (16.7%) and when at home (15.3%). All intra-class correlation statistics for cued behaviour were low, indicating the importance of within-person variability. There were marked individual differences between people in what constituted a ‘typical’ context for snacking.
Conclusions: people show substantial differences in the contexts in which they snack. Tailoring interventions to these individual patterns of behaviour may improve intervention efficacy.
179-184
Allan, Julia
0a1de00d-dfa3-4239-84e9-2e14c1c6aa29
McMinn, David
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Powell, Daniel
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September 2019
Allan, Julia
0a1de00d-dfa3-4239-84e9-2e14c1c6aa29
McMinn, David
1a7d54ef-5a23-48bd-b710-876b88ce75d2
Powell, Daniel
e1e53a46-a37b-425b-ac15-e82f99033f46
Allan, Julia, McMinn, David and Powell, Daniel
(2019)
Tracking snacking in real time: time to look at individualised patterns of behaviour.
Nutrition and Health, 25 (3), .
(doi:10.1177/0260106019866099).
Abstract
Background: identifying when and where people overeat is important for intervention design, yet little is known about how unhealthy behaviours unfold in real life.
Aim: to track the activities, social contexts and locations that co-occur with unhealthy snacking.
Methods: 64 adults (49F, mean age= 38.6 years) used electronic diaries to record snacking, location, social context and current activity every waking hour over 7 days. The proportion of snacking episodes that co-occurred with each location/activity/context were calculated by group and individual.
Results: over the group, snacking was most frequent whilst socialising (19.9% of hours spent socialising) or using the TV/computer (19.7%), when with friends (16.7%) and when at home (15.3%). All intra-class correlation statistics for cued behaviour were low, indicating the importance of within-person variability. There were marked individual differences between people in what constituted a ‘typical’ context for snacking.
Conclusions: people show substantial differences in the contexts in which they snack. Tailoring interventions to these individual patterns of behaviour may improve intervention efficacy.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 26 July 2019
Published date: September 2019
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 510482
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/510482
ISSN: 0260-1060
PURE UUID: 2a128158-4e58-409e-b24a-48af583a6a5f
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Date deposited: 13 Apr 2026 09:43
Last modified: 14 Apr 2026 02:19
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Author:
Julia Allan
Author:
David McMinn
Author:
Daniel Powell
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