Hispanic Youth Visits to Food and Beverage Company Websites.

Maia Hyary,Jennifer L Harris

doi:10.1089/heq.2016.0026

Abstract

Purpose: To measure disparities in exposure to food/beverage websites by Hispanic youth.Methods: Observational study using market research panel data compared frequency and time spent visiting food/beverage websites and the Internet overall for Hispanic and non-Hispanic children (6–11 years) and youth (6–17 years).Results: Hispanic children and youth, particularly Spanish-speaking youth, were less likely to visit the Internet overall, but more likely to visit food/beverages websites, compared with their non-Hispanic peers.Conclusions: Food and beverage company websites disproportionately appeal to Hispanic youth. Public health advocates and companies should take action to reduce Hispanic youth exposure to unhealthy food marketing online.

Highlights

Public health experts raise concerns that disproportionate exposure to unhealthy food marketing contributes to poor diet and disparities in obesity and related diseases among Hispanic youth.[1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12]
Data for Hispanic and nonHispanic child visitors (6–11 years) and for Hispanic youth visitors segmented by household language preference were obtained for total Internet and higher volume websites
Time spent on the Internet increased with amount of English spoken in the household

Summary

Introduction

Previous research has documented disproportionate exposure to unhealthy food marketing by Hispanic youth in their communities and on TV.[16,17] marketing to Hispanic youth on the Internet may pose health risks. Food and beverage companies have increased their marketing aimed at all youth on digital media,[18] including food company websites.[19] Previous research has documented frequent youth visitors to food company websites, including those featuring child-directed games.[13,20,21] research has not assessed Hispanic youth’s exposure to food and beverage marketing on the Internet. This research utilizes syndicated market research data to compare Internet behavior, including visits to food/beverage websites, for Hispanic and non-Hispanic youth

Methods

Results

Conclusion