Eating Behaviour

Aim: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to determine the prevalence of the self reported health behaviors and differences in these behaviors by gender and grades in high school adolescents in İzmir, Turkey.
Material and Methods: A stratified cluster sampling procedure was used for this cross-sectional study. The study sample included 2 296 students attending 22 high schools in Izmir. As a data collection instrument, some questions from the Health Behavior in School-aged Children Study 2009/2010 questionnnaire and questions which were developed by the researchers to understand behaviors of internet use in adolescents were used. Chi-square tests and Cramer's V statistics were used for statistical analyses.
Results: Among the high school students, 33.8% experimented smoking, 26.3% smoked cigarette during the 30 days before the survey, 14.9% smoked cigarette regularly during the 30 days before the survey, 54.1% experimented drinking alcohol, 38.4% drunk alcohol during the 30 days before the survey, 31.6% got drunk, 10.9% were adequately physically active, 59.9% watched TV for a long period of time, 72.8% used internet for a long period of time, 48.1% ate breakfast regularly, 36.2% ate adequate amount of fruit, 14.1% ate adequate amount of vegetable, 31.3% ate candies and chocolate very often, 18% drunk soft drink very often, 30.3% were bullied, 29.9% bullied others and 41% involved in a physical fight.
Conclusions: These results showed that " Adolescent friendly health services " should be generalized all over Turkey, physicians should evaluate each adolescent for his/her health behaviors in each visit and implementation of prevention programs which adopt a health promotion perspective is necessary begining from the elementary school. (Turk Pediatri Ars 2016; 51: 22-34)

El presente escrito, muestra algunas de las diferentes perspectivas a través de las cuales se puede estudiar la conducta alimentaria. Se plantea una división, la biológica y la psicológica. Dentro de las anteriores perspectivas se enuncian
abordajes fi siológicos, estructurales, cognoscitivos, sociales y conductuales. En cada uno de estos se enuncian algunos de los aportes más sobresalientes en la explicación de la conducta alimentaria. Se menciona de forma particular, el papel del análisis experimental del comportamiento en la investigación y el crecimiento de esta temática de investigación.

When people search for what to cook for the day, they increasingly use online recipe sites to find inspiration. Such recipe sites often show popular recipes to make it easier to find a suitable choice. However, these popular recipes are not always the healthiest options and can promote an unhealthy lifestyle. Our goal is to understand to what extent it is possible to steer the food selection of people through digital nudging. While nudges have been shown to affect humans' behavior regarding food choices in the physical world, there is little research on the impact of nudges on online food choices. Specifically, it is unclear how different nudges impact (i) the behavior of people, (ii) the time they need to make a decision, and (iii) their satisfaction and confidence with their selection. We investigate the effects of highlighting, defaults, social information, and warnings on the decision-making of online users through two consecutive user studies. Our results show that a hybrid nudge, which both involves setting a default and adding social information, significantly increases the likelihood that a nudged item is selected. Moreover, it may help decreasing the required decision time for participants while having no negative effects on the participant's satisfaction and confidence. Overall, our work provides evidence that nudges can be effective in this domain, but also that the type of a digital nudge matters. Therefore, different nudges should be evaluated in practical applications.

Effects of awareness that food intake is being measured by a universal eating monitor on the consumption of a pasta lunch and a cookie snack in healthy female volunteers ☆ A B S T R A C T To date, there have been no studies that have explicitly examined the effect of awareness on the consumption of food from a Universal Eating Monitor (UEM – hidden balance interfaced to a computer which covertly records eating behaviour). We tested whether awareness of a UEM affected consumption of a pasta lunch and a cookie snack. 39 female participants were randomly assigned to either an aware or unaware condition. After being informed of the presence of the UEM (aware) or not being told about its presence (unaware), participants consumed ad-libitum a pasta lunch from the UEM followed by a cookie snack. Awareness of the UEM did not significantly affect the amount of pasta or cookies eaten. However, awareness significantly reduced the rate of cookie consumption. These results suggest that awareness of being monitored by the UEM has no effect on the consumption of a pasta meal, but does influence the consumption of a cookie snack in the absence of hunger. Hence, energy dense snack foods consumed after a meal may be more susceptible to awareness of monitoring than staple food items.

Polski dorobek naukowy związany z badaniem zwyczajów i preferencji żywieniowych jest obszerny i zróżnicowany, a postępująca globalizacja powoduje coraz większe zainteresowanie międzykulturowymi analizami porównawczymi. W celu uzyskania wiarygodnych wyników takich porównań konieczne jest stosowanie zestandaryzowanych narzędzi, walidowanych międzykulturowo. Jednym z takich narzędzi jest FRL (Food Related Lifestyles) – narzędzie do badania preferencji zwyczajów i preferencji żywieniowych, zaprojektowane w celu dokonywania porównań pomiędzy różnymi kulturami czy krajami. Większość krajów europejskich została przebadana za pomocą FRL. Dowiedziono, że narzędzie jest wystarczająco odporne na różnice kulturowe i może być stosowane do badań porównawczych.
Celem niniejszej pracy było sprawdzenie, czy narzędzie FRL jest rzetelną skalą pomiarową, która może być zastosowana w polskim środowisku kulturowym. Celem dodatkowym było sprawdzenie, czy sposób zbierania danych (wywiad osobisty i ankieta on-line) ma wpływ na rzetelność badania.
Zastosowano dwie metody zbierania danych (wywiad osobisty i ankieta on-line) W przypadku wywiadu osobistego zastosowano schemat dwustopniowego doboru warstwowego. Jednostką doboru pierwszego stopnia było miejsce zamieszkania (województwo), jednostką doboru drugiego stopnia była liczba gospodarstw domowych. Ankieta on-line była dostępna bez ograniczeń i mogły ją wypełniać wszystkie zainteresowane osoby. Uzyskano odpowiedzi od 948 osób z terenu wszystkich województw w Polsce oraz ze wszystkich grup demograficznych. Rzetelność została oceniona za pomocą współczynnika Alpha Cronbacha zgodnie z metodą zaproponowaną przez Grunerta i wsp.
W wyniku analizy stwierdzono, że w przypadku konstruktów dotyczących motywów zakupowych oraz sposobów przygotowywania posiłków rzetelność skali jest stosunkowo mała, jednak rzetelność narzędzia FRL dla Polski oraz jego przydatność do porównań międzykulturowych została potwierdzona.
The Polish scientific achievements linked with habits and food preferences surveys are wide-ranging and varied, and the progressing globalization causes the interest in cross-cultural comparative analyzes to more and more increase. In order to obtain reliable results of such comparisons, it is necessary to apply standardized, cross-culturally validated tools.
One such tool is FRL (Food Related Lifestyles), an instrument used in research studies on dietary habits and preferences and designed, specifically, to make comparisons among different cultures or countries. The majority of European countries were surveyed using the FRL instrument. It was proved that the FRL instrument is capable of sufficiently withstanding cultural differences and can be applied in comparative studies.
The objective of this research study was to verify whether or not the FRL instrument is an accurate measuring scale and can be utilized in the Polish cultural environment. An additional objective was to check whether or not the method of collecting data (personal interview and on-line survey) impact the reliability of the FRL instrument.
Two data collection methods were applied (personal interview and on-line interview). In the case of personal interview, a two-stage stratified sampling scheme was applied. The place of residence (region) was a first-stage sampling unit (region), and the number of households was a second-stage sampling unit. The on-line questionnaire was freely available and all interested persons could fill it in. 948 respondents from all provinces in Poland and in all demographic groups provided their responses. The reliability was assessed using a Cronbach’s alpha index pursuant to the methodology as proposed by Grunert at al. (1993).
Based on the analysis results, it was found that in the case of constructs relating to buying motives and methods for preparing meals, the accuracy of measuring scale  was relatively low; however, it was confirmed that the FRL instrument was reliable with regard to Poland and suitable for cross-cultural comparisons.