Article
Details
Citation
Hillier-Brown FC, Summerbell CD, Moore HJ, Routen A, Lake AA, Adams J, White M, Araujo-Soares V, Abraham C, Adamson AJ & Brown TJ (2017) The impact of interventions to promote healthier ready-to-eat meals (to eat in, to take away or to be delivered) sold by specific food outlets open to the general public: a systematic review: Promoting healthier food outlet meals. Obesity Reviews, 18 (2), pp. 227-246. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12479
Abstract
Introduction
Ready‐to‐eat meals sold by food outlets that are accessible to the general public are an important target for public health intervention. We conducted a systematic review to assess the impact of such interventions.
Methods
Studies of any design and duration that included any consumer‐level or food‐outlet‐level before‐and‐after data were included.
Results
Thirty studies describing 34 interventions were categorized by type and coded against the Nuffield intervention ladder: restrict choice?=?trans fat law (n?=?1), changing pre‐packed children's meal content (n?=?1) and food outlet award schemes (n?=?2); guide choice?=?price increases for unhealthier choices (n?=?1), incentive (contingent reward) (n?=?1) and price decreases for healthier choices (n?=?2); enable choice?=?signposting (highlighting healthier/unhealthier options) (n?=?10) and telemarketing (offering support for the provision of healthier options to businesses via telephone) (n?=?2); and provide information?=?calorie labelling law (n?=?12), voluntary nutrient labelling (n?=?1) and personalized receipts (n?=?1). Most interventions were aimed at adults in US fast food chains and assessed customer‐level outcomes. More ‘intrusive’ interventions that restricted or guided choice generally showed a positive impact on food‐outlet‐level and customer‐level outcomes. However, interventions that simply provided information or enabled choice had a negligible impact.
Conclusion
Interventions to promote healthier ready‐to‐eat meals sold by food outlets should restrict choice or guide choice through incentives/disincentives. Public health policies and practice that simply involve providing information are unlikely to be effective.
Keywords
Diet; food environments; ready‐to‐eat meals; restaurants; systematic review; takeaways
Journal
Obesity Reviews: Volume 18, Issue 2
Status | Published |
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Funders | UK National Institute of Health Research's School for Public Health Research, Durham and Newcastle Universities and NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care of the South West Peninsula (PenCLAHRC) |
Publication date | 28/02/2017 |
Publication date online | 29/11/2016 |
Date accepted by journal | 23/09/2016 |
URL | |
Publisher | Wiley |
ISSN | 1467-7881 |
eISSN | 1467-789X |