Diet is a key risk factor for the development of non-communicable diseases and is implicated in the rising prevalence of overweight and obesity. Understanding the context within which individuals, especially young women, make food-related decisions and the environmental factors that act as modulators of eating behaviours is important for the development of practical effective interventions to reduce risk of diet-related disease and ill health.
This project used the Photovoice method to develop understanding of the environmental influences on the food choices and eating behaviours. A sample of twelve university students, aged 18 to 24 years, were asked to take photos to represent their ideas, thoughts, or feelings on the theme “Represent your (daily) experience with food”. Discussions with the young women around the photographs yielded four major themes and three minor themes. The photographs provided insight into this age groups’ view of their physical environment, revealing the multiple influences of the external environment for eating cues, ranging from media influences that are controlled externally, to socially constructed and personal views of their environment that can be both internally controlled and externally influenced.
The roles of accessibility to food, and marketing, were identified as strong factors within the food environment that act as cues to (unhealthy) food choice. In general, findings suggest that the relationship between external cues and internal responses appears complex and needs to be better understood to inform public health interventions that alter dietary practices.