Costs, equity and acceptability of three policies to prevent obesity: A narrative review to support policy development.

Obesity prevention policies are a priority for many governments and intergovernmental agencies. Policy makers not only use systematic reviews of effectiveness but also consider contextual issues including cost and cost-effectiveness, equity, rights, acceptability and feasibility. To support their work, the present narrative review examines three contextual issues (costs, equity and acceptability) in relation to three policies for obesity prevention: sweetened beverage taxes, front-of-pack nutrition labelling and restrictions on advertising to children.

International codes and agreements to restrict the promotion of harmful products can hold lessons for the control of alcohol marketing.

Background and aims The 2011 UN Summit on Non-Communicable Disease failed to call for global action on alcohol marketing despite calls in the World Health Organization (WHO) Global Action Plan on Non-Communicable Diseases 2013-20 to restrict or ban alcohol advertising. In this paper we ask what it might take to match the global approach to tobacco enshrined in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), and suggest that public health advocates can learn from the development of the FCTC and the Code of Marketing on infant formula milks and the recent recommendations on restricting food marketing to children. Methods Narrative review of qualitative accounts of the processes that created and monitor existing codes and treaties to restrict the marketing of consumer products, specifically breast milk substitutes, unhealthy foods and tobacco.

The commercial use of digital media to market alcohol products: a narrative review.

Background And Aims: The rising use of digital media in the last decade, including social networking media and downloadable applications, has created new opportunities for marketing a wide range of goods and services, including alcohol products. This paper aims to review the evidence in order to answer a series of policy-relevant questions: does alcohol marketing through digital media influence drinking behaviour or increases consumption; what methods of promotional marketing are used, and to what extent; and what is the evidence of marketing code violations and especially of marketing to children?

Method And Findings: A search of scientific, medical and social journals and authoritative grey literature identified 47 relevant papers (including 14 grey literature documents). The evidence indicated (i) that exposure to marketing through digital media was associated with higher levels of drinking behaviour; (ii) that the marketing activities make use of materials and approaches that are attractive to young people and encourage interactive engagement with branded messaging; and (iii) there is evidence that current alcohol marketing codes are being undermined by alcohol producers using digital media.

Alcohol marketing and youth alcohol consumption: a systematic review of longitudinal studies published since 2008.

Background And Aims: Youth alcohol consumption is a major global public health concern. Previous reviews have concluded that exposure to alcohol marketing was associated with earlier drinking initiation and higher alcohol consumption among youth. This review examined longitudinal studies published since those earlier reviews.

Restricting marketing to children: consensus on policy interventions to address obesity.

Obesity presents major challenges for public health and the evidence is strong. Lessons from tobacco control indicate a need for changing the policy and environments to make healthy choices easier and to create more opportunities for children to achieve healthy weights. In April 2011, the Alberta Policy Coalition for Chronic Disease Prevention convened a consensus conference on environmental determinants of obesity such as marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages to children.

News report. Gaps and weaknesses in controls on food and drink marketing to children in the UK.

In 2011 the National Heart Forum completed a commission from the UK Department of Health to conduct a mapping and consultation exercise on the marketing and promotion of food and drinks to children. One of the outputs was an analysis of the regulatory environment including statutory and self-regulatory rules and voluntary codes of conduct. The key findings and observations from this analysis are presented in this short report.

Assessing the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of adaptive e-Learning to improve dietary behaviour: protocol for a systematic review.

Background: The composition of habitual diets is associated with adverse or protective effects on aspects of health. Consequently, UK public health policy strongly advocates dietary change for the improvement of population health and emphasises the importance of individual empowerment to improve health. A new and evolving area in the promotion of dietary behavioural change is e-Learning, the use of interactive electronic media to facilitate teaching and learning on a range of issues, including diet and health.

Television advertising and children: lessons from policy development.

Aim: To conduct a policy review of the regulations related to food advertising on television aimed at children.

Design: The study consisted of documentary analysis of relevant legislation and policy documents related to children's advertising from both industry and non-governmental organisations at a global level and in 20 countries. This was supported with semi-structured telephone interviews with individuals from 11 countries.