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Using wearable cameras to monitor eating and drinking behaviours during transport journeys

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Abstract

Purpose

Young adults are vulnerable to weight gain and dietary behaviours such as ‘eating on the run’ are likely contributors. The objective of this study was to examine eating and drinking behaviours during transport journeys in a sample of young adults using wearable cameras that take continuous images every 30 s.

Methods

Seventy-eight 18–30 year olds wore an Autographer wearable camera for three consecutive days. Image coding schedules were designed to assess physical activity (included transportation) and diet. For the general description of data, frequency analysis was calculated as image number (percentage) and mean (± SD) or median (IQR) when appropriate.

Results

A total of 281,041 images were coded and 32,529 (14%) of images involved transport. The median (IQR) camera wear time was 8 h per day (7–9 h). The camera images identified 52 participants (67%) either eating or drinking during transport (excluding water). A total of 143 eating and drinking occasions were identified, averaging 3 occasions per person over the three study days. Fifty five (38%) eating episodes were identified by the camera images of which 27 (49%) were discretionary and 88 (62%) drinking episodes were identified of which (45%) were discretionary.

Conclusion

This study confirms that transport is a potential setting for intervention. Young adults are consuming discretionary food and beverages during transport which may contribute to energy-dense diets and compromise diet quality. Substituting unhealthy with healthy food advertising and potentially prohibiting eating and drinking whilst on public transport is suggested.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Code availability

Software application is available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge Lyndal Wellard-Cole for assistance with data collection and Korina Richmond for study administration. Consent was obtained from those we acknowledge.

Funding

This research was funded by a Linkage Grant from the Australian Research Council and Cancer Council NSW LP150100831. AD and VC were funded by the Australian Government research training fund PhD scholarship. The funders had no role in the design of the study; in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data; in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results. Other authors have no conflict of interest to declare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nutrition and Dietetics Group, Charles Perkins Centre, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Alyse Davies, Virginia Chan, Luke Gemming & Margaret Allman-Farinelli

  2. Prevention Research Centre, School of Public Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Adrian Bauman

  3. Department of Public Health, Health Promotion & Policy Research Unit, University of Otago, Wellington South, PO Box 7343, Wellington, 6242, New Zealand

    Louise Signal

  4. Charles Perkins Centre, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Cameron Hosking

Authors
  1. Alyse Davies
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  2. Virginia Chan
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  3. Adrian Bauman
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  4. Louise Signal
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  5. Cameron Hosking
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  6. Luke Gemming
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  7. Margaret Allman-Farinelli
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Contributions

The study was conceptualised by AD, AB, MAF Methodology AD, VC, AB, LS, CH, LG, MAF. Analysis: Image coding and reliability testing AD, VC, Statistics AD, MAF. Writing—original draft preparation, AD, MAF. Writing—review and editing, AD, VC, AB, LS, CH, LG, MAF.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alyse Davies.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Ethics approval was obtained by the Human Research Ethics Committee (project 2016/546).

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Participants gave consent on the initial online demographic and screening questionnaire.

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All authors have seen and approved the final version of the manuscript. The article is the authors’ original work and hasn’t received prior publication and isn’t under consideration for publication elsewhere.

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Davies, A., Chan, V., Bauman, A. et al. Using wearable cameras to monitor eating and drinking behaviours during transport journeys. Eur J Nutr 60, 1875–1885 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-020-02380-4

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