Associations of Temporal Eating Patterns with Nutrient Intake Variability and Diet Quality Among Japanese Female Mobile Application Users

Summary

This study uses approximately one month of dietary records from 742 Japanese female mobile application users to examine how irregular meal timing relates to variability in daily nutrient intake, assessed via coefficient of variation. It further investigates whether associations between meal timing and diet quality differ according to mealtime regularity, offering a more temporally granular perspective than studies relying on time-averaged dietary data. The chrononutritional approach provides methodological insight into how meal timing patterns may influence nutritional adequacy beyond simple dietary composition.

UK applicability

The findings are derived from a Japanese female sample using a specific food-logging application, so direct transferability to UK populations is limited by dietary, cultural, and behavioural differences; however, the chrononutritional framework and methodological approach using app-based dietary tracking are relevant to UK research on meal timing, diet quality, and digital health monitoring.

Key measures

Coefficient of variation (CV) of nutrient intake; mealtime regularity indices; diet quality scores; chrononutritional parameters derived from approximately one month of food-logging app data (n=742)

Outcomes reported

The study measured associations between mealtime irregularity (chrononutritional characteristics) and day-to-day nutrient intake variability, as well as whether meal timing relates to overall diet quality depending on the regularity of mealtimes among female mobile application users.

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