2134/20315
Natalie Pearson
Natalie
Pearson
Stuart Biddle
Stuart
Biddle
Lauren Williams
Lauren
Williams
Anthony Worsley
Anthony
Worsley
David Crawford
David
Crawford
Kylie Ball
Kylie
Ball
Adolescent television viewing and unhealthy snack food consumption: the mediating role of home availability of unhealthy snack foods
Loughborough University
2016
Television viewing
Energy-dense snack foods
Mediation
Home availability
Adolescents
Medical and Health Sciences not elsewhere classified
2016-02-12 14:38:58
Journal contribution
https://repository.lboro.ac.uk/articles/journal_contribution/Adolescent_television_viewing_and_unhealthy_snack_food_consumption_the_mediating_role_of_home_availability_of_unhealthy_snack_foods/9622418
Objective: To examine whether home availability of energy-dense snack foods mediates the association between television viewing (TV) and energy-dense snack consumption among adolescents.
Design: Cross-sectional.
Setting: Secondary schools in Victoria, Australia.
Subjects: Adolescents (n=2984) from Years 7 and 9 of secondary school completed a web- based survey, between September 2004 and July 2005, assessing their energy-dense snack food consumption, school day and weekend day TV viewing and home availability of energy-dense snack foods.
Results: School day and weekend day TV viewing were positively associated with energy-dense snack consumption among adolescent boys (β=0.003, p<0.001) and girls (β=0.03, p<0.001). Furthermore, TV viewing (school and weekend day) were positively associated with home availability of energy-dense snack foods among adolescent boys and girls and home availability of energy-dense snack foods was positively associated with energy-dense snack food consumption among boys (β=0.26, p<0.001) and girls (β=0.28, p<0.001). Home availability partly mediated the association between TV viewing and energy-dense snack consumption.
Conclusions: The results of the present study suggest that TV viewing has a significant role to play in adolescent unhealthy eating behaviours. Future research should assess the efficacy of methods to reduce adolescent energy-dense snack food consumption by targeting parents to reduce home availability of energy-dense foods, and on reducing TV viewing behaviours of adolescents.