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Abstract
Objectives Work hours and commute time are key contributors to time scarcity, with potential detrimental implications for healthy eating. This study examined (1) associations between work and commute hours with food practices and (2) within-individual associations between changes in work and commute hours with changes in food practices.
Design Longitudinal study
Setting Australia
Participants Data were from 14 807 respondents in waves 7 (2007), 9 (2009), 13 (2013) and 17 (2017) of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey. The sample for this analysis included individuals who were in paid employment in at least one of the four waves.
Primary and secondary outcome measures Outcomes included frequency of out-of-home food purchasing for breakfast, lunch, dinner and all three summed eating occasions, and fruit and vegetables consumption.
Results Results indicated the longer individuals spent working and commuting, the more likely they were to purchase out-of-home foods (frequency of total out-of-home food purchasing: incidence rate ratio (IRR)=1.007 (95% CI 1.007 to 1.008)), and the less they consumed fruit and vegetables, although reductions in fruit and vegetables servings were minimal (fruit: β=−0.002 (95% CI −0.003 to –0.001), vegetables: β=−0.002 (95% CI −0.003 to –0.001)). Similar results regarding associations with out-of-home food purchasing were observed when examining within-individual changes (IRR=1.006 (95% CI 1.005 to 1.007)).
Conclusions Results suggest employment-related time demands push towards more frequent out-of-home food purchasing. In the long term, this may have negative health consequences as out-of-home foods tend to be less healthy than home-prepared foods.
- PUBLIC HEALTH
- NUTRITION & DIETETICS
- EPIDEMIOLOGY
Data availability statement
Data are available for approved users from the Australian Data Archive Dataverse system. This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to either DSS or the Melbourne Institute. The authors requested access to the data through the Australian Data Archive Dataverse system.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
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Data availability statement
Data are available for approved users from the Australian Data Archive Dataverse system. This paper uses unit record data from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. The HILDA Project was initiated and is funded by the Australian Government Department of Social Services (DSS) and is managed by the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research (Melbourne Institute). The findings and views reported in this paper, however, are those of the author and should not be attributed to either DSS or the Melbourne Institute. The authors requested access to the data through the Australian Data Archive Dataverse system.
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Footnotes
Contributors LHO and LT conceptualised the study with input from all authors. LHO led the analysis with input from KEL and LT. LHO drafted the initial manuscript. KEL, DC and LT provided critical feedback on drafts of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript. LHO acts as guarantor for the final manuscript.
Funding This work was supported by a Deakin University Postgraduate Research Scholarship to LHO. Award/grant number not applicable.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient and public involvement Patients and/or the public were not involved in the design, or conduct, or reporting, or dissemination plans of this research.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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