Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Dec 21, 2018
Date Accepted: Sep 26, 2019
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Why we eat what we eat: Dispositional and in-the-moment eating motives
ABSTRACT
Background:
Eating motives are diverse, ranging from hunger to affect regulation. Current psychometric measures can capture multiple eating motives, but rely on dispositional rather than idiographic approaches, neglecting the moment-to-moment variability of eating motives that are associated with the situational fluctuations of daily life.
Objective:
To compare 15 basic eating motives measured by a single-time-point dispositional assessment (trait) with an in-the-moment assessment of the same motives (state) in order to examine differences between why people think they eat and why they eat in the moment of consumption.
Methods:
Eating motives were assessed in 35 participants using two methodological approaches: (1) a dispositional single-time point assessment, (2) an in-the-moment mobile assessment across eight days (N=888 meals). The resulting eating motive profiles were compared according to different indices of profile similarity. Moreover, a visualized person x motive data matrix was created to analyze and visualize between- and within-person data.
Results:
An omnibus index of profile similarity yielded a good overall similarity between the trait and state eating motive profiles across participants, with ICCde = 0.52 (P < .001). However, while the two approaches revealed a comparable rank order (ICCde=0.52, P<.001), trait motives overestimated 12 of 15 state motives (P<.001, d=1.97). Large differences (d>0.8) between trait and state eating motives were found for price, sociability, need and hunger, traditional eating, habit, and natural concerns. Further, the person x motive data matrix revealed substantial inter-individual differences in intra-individual motive profiles.
Conclusions:
For a comprehensive understanding of why we eat what we eat, dispositional assessments need to be extended by comprehensive in-the-moment mobile assessments. Targeting differences between why people think they eat and why they actually eat in the moment might hold great promise for tailored inventions for behavior change.
Citation
