What is the public appetite for healthy eating policies? Evidence from a cross-European survey.

World Health Organization estimates that obesity accounts for 2-8% of health care costs in different parts of Europe, and highlights a key role for national policymaking in curbing the epidemic. A variety of healthy-eating policy instruments are available, ranging from more paternalistic policies to those less intrusive. Our aim is to measure and explain the level of public support for different types of healthy eating policy in Europe, based on data from a probabilistic sample of 3003 respondents in five European countries.

Is there the gap in public health literature in Europe?

Introduction And Objective: The growing expectations for the effectiveness of public health increase the demand for scientific literature, concerning research, reviews and other forms of information. The bibliographic databases are of crucial importance for researchers and policy makers. The objective of this study is to estimate the supply of scientific literature related to public health in selected European countries, which are available to a wide range of users.

Policies to promote healthy eating in Europe: a structured review of policies and their effectiveness.

This review provides a classification of public policies to promote healthier eating as well as a structured mapping of existing measures in Europe. Complete coverage of alternative policy types was ensured by complementing the review with a selection of major interventions from outside Europe. Under the auspices of the Seventh Framework Programme's Eatwell Project, funded by the European Commission, researchers from five countries reviewed a representative selection of policy actions based on scientific papers, policy documents, grey literature, government websites, other policy reviews, and interviews with policy-makers.

Lessons for public health campaigns from analysing commercial food marketing success factors: a case study.

Background: Commercial food marketing has considerably shaped consumer food choice behaviour. Meanwhile, public health campaigns for healthier eating have had limited impact to date. Social marketing suggests that successful commercial food marketing campaigns can provide useful lessons for public sector activities.

Assessment of evaluations made to healthy eating policies in Europe: a review within the EATWELL Project.

Objective: To identify and assess healthy eating policies at national level which have been evaluated in terms of their impact on awareness of healthy eating, food consumption, health outcome or cost/benefit.

Design: Review of policy documents and their evaluations when available.

Setting: European Member States.

Competence profile of an in-house educator of professionals providing elderly care (ComPro project).

Background: The main goal of the study, conducted within the multicenter ComPro project (Competence Profiles for Learning Supporters in Elderly Care) and funded by the Leonardo da Vinci Programme in 2006-2008, was to define the competences profile of a person responsible for the inhouse education of professionals caring for the elderly persons in social care institutions.

Methods: The qualitative (3 focus group interviews) and quantitative (the KODE®X questionnaire) approach was used to study opinions of 106 care professionals and 39 managers in social care institutions, and 35 teachers in vocational schools for workers in social care about desired competences of an in-house educator.

Results: The factor analysis with Varimax rotation performed separately for each group of surveyed professionals showed 4 factors in each, which had different components with the highest correlation rates.