A New Analysis on Self-Control in Intertemporal Choice and Mediterranean Dietary Pattern

2019
This paper completes Munoz Torrecillas et al. (1) results and conclusions investigating the relationship between adherence to healthy dietary habits, specifically the Mediterranean Diet (hereinafter, MD), and impulsivity in intertemporal choices. Impulsivity can be defined as the strong preference for small immediate payoffs over larger delayed payoffs, and in the original study this behavior was captured by the parameter k (discount rate of the hyperbolic discount function), calculated using an automated scoring mechanism. Adherence to MD was measured by the KIDMED index and then grouped into three levels: high, medium, and low. While the authors observed that individuals in the high adherence group had the shallowest discounting and individuals in the low adherence group had the steepest discounting, the data were not statistically analyzed in depth. Therefore, the purpose of the present paper is to propose a preliminary quantitative model for this relationship and evaluate its significance. Tests revealed a significant interaction between adherence to MD and magnitude of delayed rewards when predicting discount rates. Specifically, the degree to which impulsivity decreases as adherence to MD increases is strongly influenced by delayed rewards of smaller magnitude. These findings are consistent with the authors' claims that healthy dietary habits may be closely linked with greater self-control when payoffs are small, and thus warrant further examination. The results do not indicate causality though, so future studies could also investigate the directions of this relationship as a means of developing behavioral interventions.
FRONTIERS IN PUBLIC HEALTH
卷号:7
收录类型
SSCI
发表日期
2019
学科领域
循证公共卫生
国家
美国
语种
英语
DOI
10.3389/fpubh.2019.00165
其他关键词
DISCOUNT RATES; OBESITY; TIME; HUMANS; GAINS
EISSN
2296-2565
资助机构
Spanish Ministry of Economy and CompetitivenessSpanish Government; European Regional Development Fund-ERDF/FEDER-UE (National RD Project) [ECO2015-66504, DER2016-76053-R]
资助信息
SC and MM acknowledge the financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and the European Regional Development Fund-ERDF/FEDER-UE (National R&D Project ECO2015-66504 and National R&D Project DER2016-76053-R). BH would like to gratefully acknowledge Michael Young and Kimberly Kirkpatrick for their technical assistance.
被引频次(WOS)
1
被引更新日期
2022-01
来源机构
Kansas State University Universidad de Almeria Hokkaido University
关键词
Mediterranean diet intertemporal choice time discounting impulsivity self-control