Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Viale Berti Pichat 5, 40127 Bologna, Italy.
Appetite. 2012 Jun;58(3):971-7. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2012.02.001. Epub 2012 Feb 9.
The main purpose of the present study was to investigate the individual variables contributing to determine the high variability in the consumption behaviours of caffeine, a psychoactive substance which is still poorly investigated in comparison with other drugs. The effects of a large set of specific personality traits (i.e., Impulsivity, Sensation Seeking, Anxiety, Reward Sensitivity and Circadian Preference) were compared along with some relevant socio-demographic variables (i.e., gender and age) and cigarette smoking behaviour. Analyses revealed that daily caffeine intake was significantly higher for males, older people, participants smoking more cigarettes and showing higher scores on Impulsivity, Sensation Seeking and a facet of Reward Sensitivity. However, more detailed analyses showed that different patterns of individual variables predicted caffeine consumption when the times of day and the caffeine sources were considered. The present results suggest that such detailed analyses are required to detect the critical predictive variables that could be obscured when only total caffeine intake during the entire day is considered.
本研究的主要目的是探究个体变量对咖啡因消费行为高度变异性的影响，咖啡因作为一种精神活性物质，与其他药物相比，其研究仍不够充分。本研究比较了一系列特定的人格特质（即冲动性、感觉寻求、焦虑、奖赏敏感性和昼夜节律偏好）以及一些相关的社会人口学变量（即性别和年龄）和吸烟行为对咖啡因消费行为的影响。分析结果表明，男性、年龄较大、吸烟较多的参与者以及表现出更高冲动性、感觉寻求和奖赏敏感性方面得分的参与者，其每日咖啡因摄入量明显更高。然而，更详细的分析表明，当考虑一天中的不同时间和咖啡因来源时，不同模式的个体变量可以预测咖啡因的消费。本研究结果表明，当仅考虑全天的总咖啡因摄入量时，可能会掩盖关键的预测变量，因此需要进行此类详细的分析。
