Caregiver and Adolescent Responses to Food and Beverage Marketing Exposures Through an Online Survey.

BACKGROUND:

The Institute of Medicine noted that current food and beverage marketing practices promote unhealthful diets. However, little public health research has been conducted on food marketing directed toward adolescents, especially using caregiver- and adolescent-reported data.

METHODS:

We assessed perceived frequency of food/beverage advertising exposure and common locations of food/beverage marketing exposure for adolescents using 2012 Summer ConsumerStyles and YouthStyles survey data on US adults ≥18 years of age and their children ages 12-17 (n=847), respectively. Exposure to advertisements for fast food, soda, fruit drinks, sports drinks, energy drinks, and bottled water were categorized as <1 time/week, 1-6 times/week, and ≥1 time/day, and don't know. Weighted chi-square tests were used to examine the difference between caregivers' and adolescents' responses.

RESULTS:

The majority of caregivers and adolescents reported that adolescents viewed advertisements ≥1 time/day across all food/beverage categories with the highest, at least daily, exposure reported for fast food. Caregivers more frequently reported that adolescents viewed all food/beverage advertisements ≥1 time/day than the adolescents reported (chi-square tests, p<0.0001). Both caregivers and adolescents reported that the adolescents view food/beverage marketing most frequently on television followed by at the supermarket.

CONCLUSIONS:

Our study showed that adolescents reported lower frequency of food and beverage advertising exposure than their caregivers. Further research may be needed to verify self-reported exposure data on food and beverage advertising as a way to obtain data for use in research on its relationship with diet quality and obesity.