Association between commercial television exposure and fast-food consumption among adults

Abstract

Objective To examine the association between television advertising exposure and adults consumption of fast foods.Design Cross-sectional telephone survey. Questions included measures of frequency of fast-food consumption at different meal times and average daily hours spent watching commercial television.Subjects/setting Subjects comprised 1495 adults (41 % response rate) aged 18 years from Victoria, Australia.Results Twenty-three per cent of respondents usually ate fast food for dinner at least once weekly, while 17 % consumed fast food for lunch on a weekly basis. The majority of respondents reported never eating fast food for breakfast (73 %) or snacks (65 %). Forty-one per cent of respondents estimated watching commercial television for 1 h/d (low viewers); 29 % watched for 2 h/d (moderate viewers); 30 % watched for 3 h/d (high viewers). After adjusting for demographic variables, high viewers were more likely to eat fast food for dinner at least once weekly compared with low viewers (OR = 145; 95 % CI 104, 203). Both moderate viewers (OR = 153; 95 % CI 101, 231) and high viewers (OR = 181; 95 % CI 120, 272) were more likely to eat fast food for snacks at least once weekly compared with low viewers. Commercial television viewing was not significantly related (P > 005) to fast-food consumption at breakfast or lunch.Conclusions The results of the present study provide evidence to suggest that cumulative exposure to television food advertising is linked to adults fast-food consumption. Additional research that systematically assesses adults behavioural responses to fast-food advertisements is needed to gain a greater understanding of the mechanisms driving this association.