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

Hillier-Brown, F. C.; Summerbell, C. D.; Moore, H. J.; Routen, A.; Lake, A. A.; Adams, J.; White, M.; Araujo-Soares, V.; Abraham, C.; Adamson, A. J.; Brown, T. J.

Abstract

Summary 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.

Citation

Hillier-Brown, F. C., Summerbell, C. D., Moore, H. J., Routen, A., Lake, A. A., Adams, J., White, M., Araujo-Soares, V., Abraham, C., Adamson, A. J., & Brown, T. J. (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. Obesity Reviews, 18(2), 227-246. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12479

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 23, 2016
• Online Publication Date: Nov 29, 2016
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2017
• Deposit Date: Oct 4, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 2, 2016
• Journal: Obesity Reviews
• Print ISSN: 1467-7881
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-789X
• Publisher: Wiley
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 227-246
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.12479
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1396048