title: Do gamblers eat more salt? Testing a latent trait model of covariance in consumption.
abstract: A diverse class of stimuli, including certain foods, substances, media, and economic behaviours, may be described as 'reward-oriented' in that they provide immediate reinforcement with little initial investment. Neurophysiological and personality concepts, including dopaminergic dysfunction, reward sensitivity and rash impulsivity, each predict the existence of a latent behavioural trait that leads to increased consumption of all stimuli in this class. Whilst bivariate relationships (co-morbidities) are often reported in the literature, to our knowledge, a multivariate investigation of this possible trait has not been done. We surveyed 1,194 participants (550 male) on their typical weekly consumption of 11 types of reward-oriented stimuli, including fast food, salt, caffeine, television, gambling products, and illicit drugs. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to compare models in a 3×3 structure, based on the definition of a single latent factor (none, fixed loadings, or estimated loadings), and assumed residual covariance structure (none, a-priori / literature based, or post-hoc / data-driven). The inclusion of a single latent behavioural 'consumption' factor significantly improved model fit in all cases. Also confirming theoretical predictions, estimated factor loadings on reward-oriented indicators were uniformly positive, regardless of assumptions regarding residual covariances. Additionally, the latent trait was found to be negatively correlated with the non-reward-oriented indicators of fruit and vegetable consumption. The findings support the notion of a single behavioural trait leading to increased consumption of reward-oriented stimuli across multiple modalities. We discuss implications regarding the concentration of negative lifestyle-related health behaviours.
authors.affiliation: Central Queensland University , Bundaberg, Queensland , Australia.
authors.forename: Belinda C
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Goodwin
authors.affiliation: Central Queensland University , Bundaberg, Queensland , Australia.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Browne
authors.affiliation: Central Queensland University , Bundaberg, Queensland , Australia.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rockloff
authors.affiliation: Central Queensland University , Bundaberg, Queensland , Australia.
authors.forename: Phillip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Donaldson
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001315:Australia / Q000453:epidemiology; D003146:Communications Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004032:Diet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling; D015438:Health Behavior; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012201:Reward; D017673:Sodium Chloride, Dietary / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D017673:Sodium Chloride, Dietary
keywords: confirmatory factor analysis; consumption; health behaviour; latent trait; substance and behavioural addictions