Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Feb;28(1):237-251.
doi: 10.1111/bjhp.12622. Epub 2022 Aug 24.

Are commonly used lab-based measures of food value and choice predictive of self-reported real-world snacking? An ecological momentary assessment study

Sarah Masterton  1 , Charlotte A Hardman  1 , Emma Boyland  1 , Eric Robinson  1 , Harriet E Makin  1 , Andrew Jones  1
Affiliations

Are commonly used lab-based measures of food value and choice predictive of self-reported real-world snacking? An ecological momentary assessment study

Sarah Masterton et al. Br J Health Psychol. 2023 Feb.

Abstract

Objectives: While the assessment of actual food intake is essential in the evaluation of behaviour change interventions for weight-loss, it may not always be feasible to collect this information within traditional experimental paradigms. For this reason, measures of food preference (such as measures of food value and choice) are often used as more accessible alternatives. However, the predictive validity of these measures (in relation to subsequent food consumption) has not yet been studied. Our aim was to investigate the extent to which three commonly used measures of preference for snack foods (explicit food value, unhealthy food choice and implicit preference) predicted self-reported real-world snacking occasions.

Design: Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) design.

Method: Over a seven-day study period, participants (N = 49) completed three daily assessments where they reported their healthy and unhealthy snack food consumption and completed the three measures of preference (explicit food value, unhealthy food choice and implicit preference).

Results: Our findings demonstrated some weak evidence that unhealthy Visual Analogue Scale scores predicted between-subject increases in unhealthy snacking frequency (OR = 1.018 [1.006, 1.030], p = .002). No other preference measures significantly predicted self-reported healthy or unhealthy snacking occasions (ps > .05).

Conclusions: These findings raise questions in relation to the association between measures of preference and self-reported real-world snack food consumption. Future research should further evaluate the predictive and construct validity of these measures in relation to food behaviours and explore the development of alternative assessment methods within eating behaviour research.

Keywords: experimental medicine; food choice; food intake; implicit associations; snacking.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

None.

References

    1. Bakaloudi, D. R. , Jeyakumar, D. T. , Jayawardena, R. , & Chourdakis, M. (2021). The impact of COVID‐19 lockdown on snacking habits, fast‐food and alcohol consumption: A systematic review of the evidence. Clinical Nutrition. Advance online publication. 10.1016/j.clnu.2021.04.020 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bates, D. , Mächler, M. , Bolker, B. , & Walker, S. (2015). Fitting linear mixed‐effects models using lme4. Journal of Statistical Software, 67(1), 1–48. 10.18637/jss.v067.i01 - DOI
    1. Blundell, J. , De Graaf, C. , Hulshof, T. , Jebb, S. , Livingstone, B. , Lluch, A. , Mela, D. , Salah, S. , Schuring, E. , Van Der Knaap, H. , & Westerterp, M. (2010). Appetite control: Methodological aspects of the evaluation of foods. Obesity Reviews, 11, 251–270. 10.1111/j.1467-789X.2010.00714.x - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Burger, K. S. , Cornier, M. A. , Ingebrigtsen, J. , & Johnson, S. L. (2011). Assessing food appeal and desire to eat: The effects of portion size & energy density. The International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 8, 101. 10.1186/1479-5868-8-101 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Burnham, K. P. , & Anderson, D. R. (2004). Multimodel inference: Understanding AIC and BIC in model selection. Sociological Methods & Research, 33(2), 261–304. 10.1177/0049124104268644 - DOI