Accepted for/Published in: JMIR mHealth and uHealth
Date Submitted: Aug 2, 2020
Date Accepted: Apr 11, 2021
Characterizing meal-time smartphone use in an obesogenic environment: Report of two observational studies using the experience sampling method
ABSTRACT
Background:
Despite a large volume of research on the impact of other digital screens (e.g., televisions) on eating behavior, little is known about the nature and impact of meal-time smartphone use.
Objective:
We investigated: (1) how smartphones are used in everyday meals, (2) whether phone users differ according to meal-time phone use patterns, and (3) whether specific phone functions (particularly food photography) would affect the amount and enjoyment of food eaten.
Methods:
Across 2 studies, we used the experience sampling method to track 1780 meals in situ. In Study 1, 137 young adults reported on their meal-time smartphone use 3 times/d over 7 consecutive days. This corresponded to each main meal, with participants recording whether they used their phones and what phone functions they engaged in while eating. In Study 2, 71 young adults were similarly tracked for 3 meals/d over 7 days. Across the week, participants’ meals were randomized to one of three smartphone conditions–food photography while eating, non-food photography while eating, or no phone use. As the outcome measures, participants reported on the amount and enjoyment of food they ate.
Results:
During the week-long tracking, most participants (85.3%) recorded at least one instance of meal-time smartphone use, with an average frequency of 1 in 3 meals where phones were used (95% CI: 23.6%, 30.6%). Unlike traditional digital screens, meal-time phone use encompassed a wide range of social and non-social activities. Further, specific forms of phone use influenced appetite regulation in different ways: in Study 2, participants showed the typical pattern of increased food intake across the day when they engaged in non-food photography during a meal (P < 0.001); however, this pattern was disrupted when they engaged in food photography (P = 0.73).
Conclusions:
Our findings underscore the prevalence and multi-faceted nature of meal-time smartphone use, distinguishing mobile phones from traditional forms of digital screens. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03299075 & NCT03346785
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.