Balancing healthy meals and busy lives: associations between work, school, and family responsibilities and perceived time constraints among young adults.

摘要

Objective: To characterize associations between perceived time constraints for healthy eating and work, school, and family responsibilities among young adults. Design: Cross-sectional survey. Setting: A large, Midwestern metropolitan region. Participants: A diverse sample of community college (n=598) and public university (n=603) students. Main Outcome Measures: Time constraints in general, as well as those specific to meal preparation/structure, and perceptions of a healthy life balance. Analysis: Chi-square tests and multivariate logistic regression ( alpha =.005). Results: Women, 4-year students, and students with lower socioeconomic status perceived more time constraints (P<.001-.002); students with lower socioeconomic status were less likely to have a healthy balance (P<=.003). Having a heavy course load and working longer hours were important predictors of time constraints among men (P<.001-.004), whereas living situation and being in a relationship were more important among women (P=.002-.003). Conclusions and Implications: Most young adults perceive time constraints on healthy dietary behaviors, yet some young adults appear able to maintain a healthy life balance despite multiple time demands. Interventions focused on improved time management strategies and nutrition-related messaging to achieve healthy diets on a low time budget may be more successful if tailored to the factors that contribute to time constraints separately among men and women.Digital Object Identifier http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2012.04.001