Personal and lifestyle characteristics predictive of the consumption of fast foods in Australia

Abstract

Objective: To identify key predictors of fast-food consumption from a range of demographic, attitudinal, personality and lifestyle variables. Methods: We analysed data from a nationwide survey (n = 20 527) conducted in Australia by Nielsen Media Research. Items assessing frequency of fast-food consumption at (1) eat in and (2) take away were regressed onto 12 demographic, seven media consumption, and 23 psychological and lifestyle variables, the latter derived from factor analysis of responses to 107 attitudinal and behavioural items. Results: Stepwise multiple regression analyses explained 29.6% of the variance for frequency of take-away and 9.6% of the variance for frequency of eat-in cons..