• Kerem Shuval, Michal Stoklosa, Mark C Pachucki, Amy L Yaroch, Jeffrey Drope, and Matthew Harding.
• American Cancer Society, Economic and Health Policy Research Program, Intramural Research Department, Atlanta, GA, USA. Electronic address: kerem.shuval@cancer.org.
• Prev Med. 2016 Dec 1; 93: 204-210.

ObjectiveTo examine the relationship between economic time preferences and frequency of fast food and full-service restaurant consumption among U.S. adults.MethodsParticipants included 5871U.S. adults who responded to a survey conducted in 2011 pertaining to the lifestyle behaviors of families and the social context of these behaviors. The primary independent variable was a measure of time preferences, an intertemporal choice assessing delay discounting. This was elicited via responses to preferences for an immediate dollar amount or a larger sum in 30 (30-day time horizon) or 60days (60-day time horizon). Outcomes were the frequency of fast food and full-service restaurant consumption. Ordered logistic regression was performed to examine the relationship between time preferences and food consumption while adjusting for covariates (e.g. socio-demographics).ResultsMultivariable analysis revealed that higher future time preferences were significantly related to less frequent fast food intake for both the 30- and 60-day time horizon variables (P for linear trend <0.05; both). Notably, participants with the highest future time preference were significantly less likely to consume fast food than those with very low future time preferences (30-day: OR=0.74, 95%CI: 0.62-0.89; and 60-day: OR=0.86, 95%CI: 0.74-1.00). In comparison, higher future time preferences were not significantly associated with full-service restaurant intake (30-day: p for linear trend=0.73; 60-day: p for linear trend=0.83).ConclusionsHigher future time preferences were related to a lower frequency of fast food consumption. Utilizing concepts from behavioral economics (e.g. pre-commitment contracts) to facilitate more healthful eating is warranted using experimental studies.Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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