The Use of Automated Wearable Cameras to Describe Evening Eating Occasions in Dunedin Adolescents

Abstract

Background: Screen use and a number of other environmental factors within the home may influence adolescent dietary behaviour. Little is known about the environmental context of evening eating occasions in New Zealand adolescents and automated wearable cameras provide an opportunity to passively and objectively explore both dietary intake and the context of eating occasions.

Objective: Use automated wearable cameras to describe evening screen use habits and eating occasions in a sample of Dunedin adolescents aged 13-17 years.

Design: A convenience sample of 47 male and female adolescents aged 13-17-years living in Dunedin provided cross-sectional data for this thesis. Participants wore an automated camera for three evenings and completed a 24-hour diet recall. Images were captured every 15 seconds and were coded for the screen type used (e.g. TV, laptop, phone) and activity (e.g. watching, social media, texting/instant messaging), types of food/beverages consumed, location and the presence of others at eating occasions. Foods consumed as snacks were further categorised into ‘recommended’, ‘other sweet’ or ‘other savoury’ to investigate the association with evening screen time.

Results: The mean age of participants was 15.5 years, 57% were female and 58% were of normal BMI. On average, participants spent 147 minutes using or watching screens per evening, with TV, laptop and phone use contributing to the majority this time and 60% of participants spent ≥2 hours using or watching screen(s) during the evening period. Less than 40% of evening meals were consumed in an ‘ideal’ context (no screens and with others), however there was no significant difference between weekday and weekend evenings. Snack images were less likely to show participants consuming snacks at a breakfast bar and desk on weekend evenings, and more likely to show consumption of snacks in the living room and car on weekend evenings (p<0.05). Additionally, a greater number of snack images depicted the participant eating alone on a weekend evening than on a weekday evening (p<0.001), and snack images were more likely to contain concurrent screen use on weekend than weekday evenings (p<0.001). The time spent using/viewing screen(s) was positively associated with the number of snacking occasions per evening (p<0.05).

Conclusion: Preliminary findings suggest a number of New Zealand adolescents consume meals and snacks whilst using/viewing screens, meals are often consumed in a less than ‘ideal’ context, and the context of eating occasions may differ between weekday and weekend evenings. Furthermore, screen time is positively associated with the number of snacking occasions per evening.