Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Tier 3 — Observational / field trialPeer-reviewed

Associations between everyday exposure to food marketing and hunger and food craving in adults: An ecological momentary assessment study

Boyland, E.; Spanakis, P.; O’Reilly, C.; Christiansen, P.

2024

Read source ↗ All evidence

Summary

This study employed ecological momentary assessment to capture naturalistic, real-time data on adults' exposure to food marketing in everyday environments and the associated psychological responses of hunger and food craving. The authors likely found that greater frequency of food marketing exposure was positively associated with increased hunger and craving responses, contributing empirical evidence to debates around the behavioural impact of ubiquitous food advertising on adults. The use of EMA methodology strengthens ecological validity compared with laboratory-based designs, offering insight into how marketing effects operate in real-world conditions.

UK applicability

The study appears to have been conducted in a UK context, making findings directly applicable to UK public health policy, advertising regulation debates, and guidance from bodies such as the Advertising Standards Authority and the Committee of Advertising Practice regarding restrictions on unhealthy food marketing to adults.

Key measures

Food marketing exposure frequency; self-reported hunger ratings; food craving ratings; EMA survey responses captured in real time

Outcomes reported

The study measured the frequency of real-world food marketing exposure and its association with self-reported hunger and food cravings in adults, assessed using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods across everyday settings.

Theme
Marketing, media & food environments
Subject
Food marketing & consumer behaviour
Study type
Research
Study design
Ecological momentary assessment (observational, repeated-measures)
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
Status
Published
Geography
UK
System type
Human clinical
Catalogue ID
XL1157

Topic tags

Pulse AI · ask about this record

Dig deeper with Pulse AI.

Pulse AI has read the whole catalogue. Ask about this record, its theme, or how the findings apply to UK farming and policy — every answer cites the underlying studies.