Project Details

In the UNICON project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG), we are working with colleagues from the Department of Health Psychology at the University of Mannheim to investigate how individual dietary behavior is related to environmental and psychosocial factors and what role socioeconomic factors play in this. In order to investigate this as realistically as possible, we have developed an Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) study in which the participants log their everyday life with their smartphones. Over a period of 21 days, they are asked several times a day what they have eaten and drunk, how they feel, what possible food stimuli (e.g. food advertising) they perceive and what shopping options are available in their immediate vicinity.

As the study focuses on environmental influences, the participants' location is also recorded. This makes it possible to investigate the extent to which spatial proximity to grocery stores is related to the eating behavior and socio-economic characteristics of the participants.

The aim is to identify groups that are particularly affected by unhealthy diets and to show how the nutritional environment is co-determined by socioeconomic factors and influences dietary behavior. A detailed understanding of the individual and structural barriers to healthy eating is necessary to reduce nutritional inequalities and make healthy eating more accessible and available to all people, regardless of socioeconomic status.