Impact of Eating Context on Dietary Choices of College Students: Evidence from the HEALTHY-UNICT Project

While personal characteristics have been evaluated as determinants of dietary choices over the years, only recently studies have looked at the impact of eating context. Examining eating context, however, can be challenging. Here, we propose the use of a web-app for the Ecological Momentary Assessment of dietary habits among 138 college students from Catania (Italy) and therefore for examining the impact of eating context on dietary choices. Eating away from home was associated with lower odds of consuming vegetables, fruits, and legumes and higher odds of consuming processed meat, salty snacks, and alcoholic drinks compared with eating at home. Eating in the company of other people was associated with higher odds of consuming vegetables, red meat, fish, legumes, milk, and sugar-sweetened beverages and lower odds of consuming nuts than eating alone. This study proposed a new way to capture and assess how eating environment might affect dietary habits. Based on our results, meal location and social context have significant effects on the dietary choices of college students, pointing to the need to incorporate these aspects into further epidemiological studies.