scholarly journals Nutrient Profiling and Child-Targeted Supermarket Foods: Assessing a “Made in Canada” Policy Approach

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlene Elliott ◽  
Natalie Scime
Keyword(s):  
Eating Habits ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Regional Office ◽  
Nutrient Profile ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
National Implementation ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Marketing To Children ◽  
Health Canada

Marketing unhealthy food and beverages to children is a pervasive problem despite the negative impact it has on children’s taste preferences, eating habits and health. In an effort to mitigate this influence on Canadian children, Health Canada has developed a nutrient profile model with two options for national implementation. This study examined the application of Health Canada’s proposed model to 374 child-targeted supermarket products collected in Calgary, AB, Canada and compared this with two international nutrient profile models. Products were classified as permitted or not permitted for marketing to children using the Health Canada model (Option 1 and Option 2), the WHO Regional Office for Europe model, and the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) model. Results were summarized using descriptive statistics. Overall, Health Canada’s Option 1 was the most stringent, permitting only 2.7% of products to be marketed to children, followed by PAHO (7.0%), WHO (11.8%), and Health Canada’s Option 2 (28.6%). Across all models, six products (1.6%) were universally permitted, and nearly 60% of products were universally not permitted on the basis of nutritional quality. Such differences in classification have significant policy and health-related consequences, given that different foods will be framed as “acceptable” for marketing to children—and understood as more or less healthy—depending on the model used.

scholarly journals Nutrient Composition of Foods Marketed to Children or Adolescents Sold in the Spanish Market: Are They Any Better?

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (20) ◽  
pp. 7699
Author(s):  
Marta Beltrá ◽  
Keila Soares-Micoanski ◽  
Eva-Maria Navarrete-Muñoz ◽  
Ana B. Ropero
Keyword(s):  
Children And Adolescents ◽  
Nutritional Value ◽  
Eating Habits ◽  
Saturated Fat ◽  
Food Group ◽  
Free Sugar ◽  
Nutrient Profile ◽  
Lower Protein ◽  
Pan American ◽  
Health Organization

Healthy eating is essential for the growth and development of children and adolescents. Eating habits established in childhood continue into adulthood. In Spain, the frequent promotion of foods with low nutritional value is already considered a threat to the health of the population, particularly to children and adolescents. In this work, we analyse 3209 foods from the Food Database, BADALI. Foods were classified as marketed to children or adolescents according to the advertising on the packaging, television or internet. We found that 17.5% of foods in the database were marketed to this population and 97% of those were considered unhealthy following the Pan American Health Organization Nutrient Profile Model (PAHO-NPM). In the total of foods for children or adolescents, 61.5% were high in fat, 58.5% in free-sugar, 45.4% in saturated fat and 45% in sodium. Foods marketed to them presented higher amounts of carbohydrates and sugar, while lower protein and fibre content than the rest. There was also considerable variability in levels of the other nutrients found in these products, which depended largely on the food group. According to our findings, there is a tendency for products marketed to children or adolescents to be unhealthy and of a poorer nutritional quality than those not targeted at them.

scholarly journals Development of a Responsible Policy Index to Improve Statutory and Self-Regulatory Policies that Protect Children’s Diet and Health in the America’s Region

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofía Rincón-Gallardo Patiño ◽  
Srijith Rajamohan ◽  
Kathleen Meaney ◽  
Eloise Coupey ◽  
Elena Serrano ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
World Health ◽  
Regional Office ◽  
Point Of Sale ◽  
Regulatory Policies ◽  
Comprehensive Literature Review ◽  
World Health Assembly Resolution ◽  
Food And Beverage ◽  
Media Characters ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Marketing To Children

In 2010, 193 Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed World Health Assembly Resolution WHA63.14 to restrict the marketing of food and beverage products high in fat, sugar and salt (HFSS) to children to prevent obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs). No study has examined HFSS marketing policies across the WHO regional office countries in the Americas. Between 2018 and 2019, a transdisciplinary team examined policies to restrict HFSS food and beverage product marketing to children to develop a responsible policy index (RESPI) that provides a quality score based on policy characteristics and marketing techniques. After designing the RESPI, we conducted a comprehensive literature review through October 2019 to examine policies in 14 countries in the WHO Americans Region. We categorized policies (n = 38) as either self-regulatory or statutory and calculated the RESPI scores, ranked from 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest). Results showed Brazil, Canada, Chile, and Uruguay had the highest RESPI scores associated with statutory policies that restricted point of sale, cartoon, licensed media characters and celebrities; and HFSS products in schools and child care settings, and broadcast and print media. Policymakers can use the RESPI tool to evaluate marketing policies within and across geopolitical boundaries to protect children’s diet and health.

scholarly journals Restricting Marketing of Unhealthy Foods: Should General Internists Engage?

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Norm Campbell MD ◽  
Tara Duhaney MHSc
Keyword(s):  
Food Industry ◽  
Eating Habits ◽  
World Health ◽  
Years Of Life Lost ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
General Internists ◽  
Life Years ◽  
Unhealthy Diet ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Marketing To Children

Unhealthy diet is the leading risk for death, years of life lost, and disability, causing an estimated 65,722 deaths and 864,032 life years lost in Canada in 2010.1 Although the causes of unhealthy diet are complex, unhealthy eating habits start early in life, and unhealthy food and beverage marketing to children is consistently associated with unhealthy dietary behaviours and childhood obesity. Although there have been recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations urging countries to restrict such marketing to children as a population strategy to improve diet, the food industry continues to direct millions of marketing dollars to increase the sales and consumption of the very foods that contribute to disease burden. While many countries have heeded the WHO recommendations, in Canada, outside of Quebec, the food industry largely self-regulates its marketing of unhealthy food to children, with no government monitoring or oversight. The result is that Canadian children are extensively exposed to marketing of unhealthy food products that would not be allowed in several other countries. Should Canadian internists accept that

scholarly journals Overabundance of unhealthy food advertising targeted to children on Guatemalan television

2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 1331-1340 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Lucia Cosenza-Quintana ◽  
Analí Morales-Juárez ◽  
Manuel Ramirez-Zea ◽  
Stefanie Vandevijvere ◽  
Maria F Kroker-Lobos
Keyword(s):  
High Frequency ◽  
World Health Organisation ◽  
World Health ◽  
Unhealthy Food ◽  
Nutrient Profile ◽  
Food Advertisements ◽  
Food And Beverage ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Marketing To Children ◽  
First Time

Abstract To assess, for the first time, the extent (by hour channel) and nature (e.g. persuasive marketing techniques (PMT) and health-related claims) of unhealthy food advertisements (ads) targeted at children (3–11 years) on the six most-watched television (TV) channels in Guatemala. We recorded 864 h of video on the six most popular channels featuring children’s programmes. We classified food and beverage ads as permitted or non-permitted for marketing to children, according to the 2015 World Health Organisation (WHO) nutrient profile. Furthermore, we also analysed PMT (i.e. premium offers, promotional characters, brand benefit claims) and health-related claims. Most food ads (85%) were non-permitted to be marketed to children. Non-permitted food ads were six times more likely, either on weekdays or weekends, for all programme and channel categories compared with permitted food ads. There was no difference in the frequency of non-permitted food ads between peak and non-peak hours, weekend and weekdays or children and non-children programmes. PMT and health-related claims were present in all food ads (5.3 ± 1.9 techniques/claims per ad). There is a need to regulate food ads on TV channels featuring children’s programmes in Guatemala as a result of a high frequency of non-permitted food ads and extensive use of PMT together with health-related claims.

scholarly journals Composition of ready-to-eat-cereals and their eligibility for marketing to children. How much does Cyprus deviate from the WHO Nutrient Profile Model?

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-67
Author(s):  
Stella Antoniou ◽  
Georgia Hadjimichael ◽  
Arsenios Tselengidis ◽  
Victoria Virginia Beeks
Keyword(s):  
Childhood Obesity ◽  
Product Category ◽  
Food Product ◽  
World Health ◽  
Nutrient Profile ◽  
Profile Model ◽  
Food Retailers ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Legislative Activities ◽  
Marketing To Children

Background: Governments have introduced legislative activities, such as restricting marketing to children of foods high in fat, sugar and/or salt, to curb the childhood obesity burden. In the European Region, the World Health Organization (WHO/Europe) has facilitated them with the development of the Nutrient Profile Model (WHO/Europe-NPM). Cyprus is the country with the highest childhood obesity rates in the Region.  Nonetheless, it does not currently restrict marketing to children. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the composition of ready-to-eat-cereals (RTECs), a fat, sugar and/or salt dense food product category on the Cypriot market and to examine whether the marketing of these products to children should be permitted according to the WHO/Europe-NPM. Methods: Two hundred RTEC samples from four national food retailers were collected from March to April 2018. The samples were assessed for their nutritional quality with the use of the WHO/Europe-NPM and statistical comparisons were performed between child-targeted and non-child-targeted RTECs. Results: The average content of sugar and salt was significantly higher in “child-targeted” than in “non-child-targeted” RTECs. 87.3% of the “child-targeted” RTECs would not be permitted for marketing to children according to the WHO/Europe-NPM and 73.5% of the overall sample exceeded at least one of the WHO/Europe-NPM recommendations for fat, sugar and/or salt. Conclusions: In case of the implementation of any marketing restriction legislation domestically in the future, most of the RTECs currently sold in Cyprus would not be permitted to be marketed to children according to the WHO/Europe-NPM. Incorporating marketing restrictions in the health policy agenda and adopting the WHO/Europe-NPM may improve the childhood obesity rates in Cyprus.

Health Communication: Implications for Diverse Populations

2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 12-19
Author(s):  
Amy Hasselkus
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Linguistically Diverse ◽  
Good Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Poor Health ◽  
Health Care Decisions ◽  
Diverse Backgrounds ◽  
Health Related

The need for improved communication about health-related topics is evident in statistics about the health literacy of adults living in the United States. The negative impact of poor health communication is huge, resulting in poor health outcomes, health disparities, and high health care costs. The importance of good health communication is relevant to all patient populations, including those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Efforts are underway at all levels, from individual professionals to the federal government, to improve the information patients receive so that they can make appropriate health care decisions. This article describes these efforts and discusses how speech-language pathologists and audiologists may be impacted.

Coronavirus diseases and pregnancy: COVID-19,SARS, and MERS

2020 ◽  
pp. 276-289
Author(s):  
Mobina Fathi ◽  
Kimia Vakili ◽  
Niloofar Deravi
Keyword(s):  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Intrauterine Growth Retardation ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
World Health ◽  
Wuhan City ◽  
Intrauterine Growth ◽  
Exponential Increase ◽  
The World ◽  
Health Organization ◽  
Respiratory Droplets

Around the end of December 2019, a new beta-coronavirus from Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China began to spread rapidly. The new virus, called SARS-CoV-2, which could be transmitted through respiratory droplets, had a range of mild to severe symptoms, from simple cold in some cases to death in others. The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 was named COVID-19 by WHO and has so far killed more people than SARS and MERS. Following the widespread global outbreak of COVID-19, with more than 132758 confirmed cases and 4955 deaths worldwide, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic disease in January 2020. Earlier studies on viral pneumonia epidemics has shown that pregnant women are at greater risk than others. During pregnancy, the pregnant woman is more prone to infectious diseases. Research on both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, which are pathologically similar to SARS-CoV-2, has shown that being infected with these viruses during pregnancy increases the risk of maternal death, stillbirth, intrauterine growth retardation and, preterm delivery. With the exponential increase in cases of COVID-19 throughout the world, there is a need to understand the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the health of pregnant women, through extrapolation of earlier studies that have been conducted on pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV. There is an urgent need to understand the chance of vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from mother to fetus and the possibility of the virus crossing the placental barrier. Additionally, since some viral diseases and antiviral drugs may have a negative impact on the mother and fetus, in which case, pregnant women need special attention for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19.

scholarly journals Predictors of COVID-19-Related Perceived Improvements in Dietary Health: Results from a US Cross-Sectional Study

Nutrients ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 2097
Author(s):  
Kelly Cosgrove ◽  
Christopher Wharton
Keyword(s):  
Dietary Habits ◽  
Eating Habits ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Lifestyle Changes ◽  
Income Loss ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Healthy Eating Habits ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Survey Responses

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in substantial lifestyle changes. No US study has identified predictors of perceived dietary healthfulness changes during the pandemic period. This study included analyses of lifestyle and dietary healthfulness changes using 958 survey responses from US primary household food purchasers. Information was collected related to demographics, COVID-19-related household changes, and health-related habits before and during the pandemic. Binary logistic regression identified predictors of perceived increase in dietary healthfulness during the pandemic period. Overall, 59.8%, 16.4%, and 23.4% of participants reported that their eating habits likely changed, may have changed, and likely did not change, respectively. Of the participants whose dietary habits likely or may have changed, 64.1%, 16.8%, and 19% reported healthier, neither healthier nor less healthy, and less healthy eating habits, respectively. COVID-19-related income loss, more meals consumed with household members in front of the television, an increase in food advertisement exposure, increased perceived stress, and better perceived current health were significant predictors of a perceived increase in dietary healthfulness. Overall, dietary habits were perceived to become healthier during the pandemic. The predictors of perceived improvement in dietary healthfulness were surprising and indicate the need for further study of these factors in crisis and noncrisis situations.

scholarly journals Avoidance of Healthcare Utilization in South Korea during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 4363
Author(s):  
Minjung Lee ◽  
Myoungsoon You
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Healthcare Utilization ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Sociodemographic Characteristics ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
First Case ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Health Related

Avoidance of healthcare utilization among the general population during pandemic outbreaks has been observed and it can lead to a negative impact on population health. The object of this study is to examine the influence of socio-demographic and health-related factors on the avoidance of healthcare utilization during the global outbreak of a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in 2020. Data were collected through an online survey four weeks after the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) confirmed the first case in South Korea; 1000 subjects were included in the analysis. The logit model for regression was used to analyze the associations between sociodemographic and health-related factors regarding the avoidance of healthcare utilization. Among the participants, 73.2% avoided healthcare utilization, and there was no significant difference in the prevalence of healthcare avoidance between groups with (72.0%) and without (74.9%) an underlying disease. Sociodemographic characteristics (e.g., gender, age, income level, and residential area) were related to healthcare avoidance. Among the investigated influencing factors, residential areas highly affected by COVID-19 (i.e., Daegu/Gyeoungbuk region) had the most significant effect on healthcare avoidance. This study found a high prevalence of healthcare avoidance among the general population who under-utilized healthcare resources during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, the results reveal that not all societal groups share the burden of healthcare avoidance equally, with it disproportionately affecting those with certain sociodemographic characteristics. This study can inform healthcare under-utilization patterns during emerging infectious disease outbreaks and provide information to public health emergency management for implementing strategies necessary to improve the preparedness of the healthcare system.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document