Food away from home and the risk of non-communicable diseases among young working adults in Pune, India: a smartphone-based dietary assessment.

BACKGROUND

The shift towards increased consumption of food away from home (FAFH) has been recognized as a significant contributor to the global rise in non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Despite this, dietary assessment in such contexts often relies on traditional methods prone to recall bias. This study, therefore, employed a novel smartphone-based dietary tracking application called "FoodLog" to investigate the factors associated with FAFH consumption and its relationship with NCD risk among young working adults in Pune, India.

METHODS

A case-control study was conducted with 1,000 participants (330 cases, 670 controls), aged 25-45 years. Dietary intake was recorded over five consecutive days using the 'FoodLog' app, designed to minimize recall bias. Sociodemographic data were collected via a semi-structured Google Forms questionnaire. Unadjusted and adjusted odds ratios were calculated to assess associations between FAFH consumption, participant characteristics, and NCD risk.

RESULTS

Approximately 35% of participants reported consuming FAFH during the previous week. FAFH consumption was significantly associated with male gender, being married, employment as a consultant, and living alone. Correlations were also found between self-reported chronic conditions and variables such as age (36-45 years), certain professions, marital status, physical inactivity, alcohol consumption, smoking, non-vegetarian diets, and FAFH consumption. FAFH consumers had a 1.48 times higher likelihood of having chronic conditions (AOR = 1.48, CI: 1.25-1.87).

CONCLUSIONS

The use of a mobile dietary app offers promising avenues for scalable nutrition monitoring. Findings support targeted public health interventions tailored to urban subgroups and encourage multidisciplinary research to address contextual dietary determinants.