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. 2021 May 6;9(5):e22929. doi: 10.2196/22929

Table 1.

Participant characteristics as a function of mealtime phone use patternsa.

Characteristic Chronic mealtime phone users (n=22) Regular mealtime phone users (n=107) Test statistic (P value)
Observed mealtime phone use

Proportion of meals with phone use 59.83 (11.77) 20.31 (13.73) –12.58 (<.001)b
Demographicsc

Age (years) 22.45 (2.44) 21.52 (1.96) –1.94 (.05)

Gender, n (%) 0.18 (.67)d


Female 17 (77.27) 78 (72.90)



Male 5 (22.73) 29 (27.10)


Ethnicity, n (%) 2.51 (.64)d


Chinese 19 (86.36) 91 (85.05)



Malay 0 (0.00) 4 (3.74)



Indian 1 (4.55) 4 (3.74)



Eurasian 1 (4.55) 1 (0.93)



Others 1 (4.55) 7 (6.54)


Phone brand, n (%) 2.63 (.62)d


Apple 15 (68.18) 74 (69.16)



Samsung 4 (18.18) 19 (17.76)



Others 3 (13.64) 14 (13.08)

Health-related variablesc

BMI 20.18 (2.27) 21.04 (2.88) 1.31 (.19)

Frequency of vigorous physical activity, n (%) 0.30 (.86)d


0-2 times/week 15 (0.68) 68 (63.55)



3-4 times/week 6 (27.27) 31 (28.97)



5-7 times/week 1 (4.55) 8 (7.48)

Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnairec

Restrained eating score 2.30 (0.66) 2.48 (0.83) 0.95 (.34)

Emotional eating score 2.50 (0.96) 2.61 (0.80) 0.56 (.58)

External eating score 3.39 (0.62) 3.32 (0.54) 0.57 (.57)
Self-reported phone use habitsc

Social phone functions engaged in


Messaging or social networking 4.86 (0.35) 4.89 (0.32) 0.32 (.75)


Emailing 3.82 (1.05) 3.60 (1.12) –0.85 (.40)


Sharing photos or videos 3.50 (1.34) 3.56 (1.15) –0.19 (.85)


Talking on the phone 2.73 (1.32) 2.65 (1.30) –0.24 (.81)

Nonsocial phone functions engaged in


Browsing websites 4.50 (0.60) 4.36 (0.79) –0.76 (.45)


Watching videos 4.55 (0.51) 4.01 (1.08) 2.28 (.02)


Taking photos / videos 3.91 (1.07) 4.07 (0.96) 0.68 (.50)


Listening to music 3.82 (1.14) 4.04 (1.13) 0.83 (.41)


Playing games 2.82 (1.76) 2.58 (1.43) 0.80 (.43)

Typical context for phone use


Idle time 4.82 (0.40) 4.67 (0.47) –1.35 (.18)


During commute 4.73 (0.55) 4.55 (0.76) –1.04 (.30)


While waiting in line 4.64 (0.49) 4.50 (0.69) –0.85 (.40)


In bed before falling asleep 4.64 (0.73) 4.35 (0.98) –1.31 (.20)


In bed when waking up 4.23 (1.02) 4.09 (1.15) –0.51 (.62)


During meals 4.09 (0.61) 3.67 (1.00) –1.89 (.06)


In the toilet 3.45 (1.57) 3.66 (1.30) 0.66 (.51)


During class time 3.32 (1.29) 3.18 (1.11) –0.53 (.60)


In the middle of the night 2.55 (1.54) 2.31 (1.22) –0.79 (.43)

Social networking involvement


Number of Instagram followers 413.0 (243.81) 534.3 (735.23) 0.71 (.48)


Number of Instagram accounts followed 598.3 (471.74) 487.1 (261.84) –1.45 (.15)

aUnless otherwise stated, the data are reported as means (SD), and the test statistic refers to the t statistic.

bItalics indicate P value <.05.

cBased on responses to the baseline questionnaires.

dChi-square statistic reported.