Role of Time in Fast-Food Purchasing Behavior in the United States.

摘要

Food away from home (FAFH) is an important part of a typical Americans diet and continues to increase as a share of the food budget. Rising consumption of a particular kind of FAFH fast foodhas been blamed for Americans expanding waistlines and poor diet quality. Previous studies have attributed this increase in purchases of fast foods to many factors, including budget and time constraints, demographic and health characteristics, and market-level forces, but no study has been able to rigorously address the effects of all of these variables on fast-food purchasing behavior. This study is the first to extensively examine the effects of timeuse behaviors, prices, sociodemographic characteristics, labor force participation, and prices on fast-food purchasing patterns in the United States before and after the Great Recession. Because fast food accounts for a large share of U.S. food expenditures and calorie consumption, a better understanding of the motivation behind trends in fast-food purchasing behaviors may help inform policies designed to improve the diet quality of Americans. This research complements previous studies that used food expenditure and food intake data (but not time-use data) to analyze the effects of demographic characteristics, prices, and income on fast-food purchases and consumption.