Planning policies to restrict fast food and inequalities in child weight in England: a quasi-experimental analysis.

Autor: Xiang H; Division of Health Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK., Goffe L; Health Determinants Research Collaborative (HDRC) Gateshead, Fuse Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, Gateshead, UK., Albani V; Population Health Sciences Institute, Fuse Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, Newcastle University, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK., Akhter N; Fuse Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK., Lake AA; Fuse Centre for Translational Research in Public Health, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, UK., Brown H; Division of Health Research, Lancaster University, Lancaster, UK.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Obesity (Silver Spring, Md.) [Obesity (Silver Spring)] 2024 Dec; Vol. 32 (12), pp. 2345-2353. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Oct 23.
DOI: 10.1002/oby.24127
Abstrakt: Objective: England has one of the highest childhood obesity rates in Europe. To promote a healthier food environment in 2015, Gateshead Council in North East England introduced planning guidelines effectively banning any new fast-food outlets. Our aim was to investigate whether this policy led to any reductions in childhood overweight and obesity prevalence and the inequalities in these outcomes.
Methods: We used data from the National Child Measurement Programme, the Food Standards Agency Food Hygiene Rating Scheme data, and the Office of National Statistics between 2012 and 2020. We estimated a difference-in-differences model employing propensity score matching to identify a control group.
Results: We found no significant change in population-level childhood overweight and obesity in Gateshead compared with control areas. In subgroup analysis by area-level deprivation, we found that the quintile of deprivation with the highest proportion of fast-food outlets had a statistically significant reduction of 4.8% in the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity compared with control areas.
Conclusions: Restricting fast-food outlets in areas with a high concentration of such outlets as part of a package of policies to reduce childhood obesity may help to reduce prevalence and inequalities in childhood overweight and obesity.
(© 2024 The Author(s). Obesity published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Obesity Society.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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