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Beyond emotion: online takeaway food consumption is associated with emotional overeating among Chinese college students

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Abstract

Background

Online takeaway food has become very popular in China. However, the potential effects of online takeaway food consumption on eating behaviours among individuals during the transition stage from adolescence to young adulthood have not yet been assessed.

Objective

This study aimed to examine the effects of takeaway food consumption on emotional overeating behaviour among college students.

Methods

Data were collected from 1450 college students from six universities in Anhui, China. The frequency of emotional overeating during the past 4 weeks was assessed by the emotional overeating questionnaire (EOQ). Data on the frequency of online takeaway food consumption and other potential risk factors at the individual, interpersonal, physical environment, and macro-system levels were assessed by questionnaire. Multilevel linear regression analyses were employed to explore the association between takeaway food consumption and emotional overeating behaviour.

Results

Compared to those who consumed online takeaway food less than 1 day per week, participants who consumed this food 4–5 days per week and participants who consumed this food 6–7 days per week had significantly higher EOQ scores (β = 0.14, p < 0.05 and β = 0.67, p < 0.001, respectively). More frequent consumption was associated with higher EOQ scores (p for trend < 0.001).

Conclusion

A higher frequency of takeaway food consumption was associated with an elevated risk of emotional overeating among college students independent of personal emotional status and other potential confounders at the interpersonal, physical environmental and macro-system levels.

Level of evidence

Level V; cross-sectional descriptive study.

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Data and material availability

Data can on request be made available.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank all the participants in the AYAEBS and the members of the study for their cooperation and hard work on data collection and management.

Funding

This work was supported by the Grants for Scientific Research of BSKY (XJ201711) from Anhui Medical University to YZ. The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or the preparation of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Health Services Management, Anhui Medical University, 81-Meishan Road, Hefei, 230032, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Yan Zhang, Fangfang Hou, Songhao Yang, Jiexue Li & Xiaoli Zha

  2. Anhui Provincial Key Laboratory of Tumour Immunotherapy and Nutrition Therapy, Hefei, 230001, People’s Republic of China

    Yan Zhang & Guodong Shen

  3. Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, Department of Geriatrics, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, University of Science and Technology of China, 17-Lu jiang Road, Hefei, 230001, Anhui, People’s Republic of China

    Guodong Shen

Authors
  1. Yan Zhang
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  2. Fangfang Hou
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  3. Songhao Yang
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  4. Jiexue Li
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  5. Xiaoli Zha
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  6. Guodong Shen
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study design and manuscript drafting. GS and YZ framed the concept and designed the study. Data collection and material preparation were conducted by FH, SY and XZ. Data analysis was performed by JL.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Yan Zhang, Xiaoli Zha or Guodong Shen.

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The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Ethical approval

The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Review Committee of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China (No. 20180180).

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Informed consent was obtained from all the participants included in the study.

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Zhang, Y., Hou, F., Yang, S. et al. Beyond emotion: online takeaway food consumption is associated with emotional overeating among Chinese college students. Eat Weight Disord 27, 781–790 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40519-021-01224-2

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