To improve on the quality and content of reporting, we developed a 7-Item Stakeholder Engagement Reporting Questionnaire. We recommend three directions for future research: 1) descriptive research on stakeholder-engagement in research; 2) evaluative research on the impact of stakeholder engagement on the relevance, transparency and adoption of research; and 3) development and validation of tools that can be used to support stakeholder engagement in future work.

This article examines the policy change process that resulted in the current sugar-sweetened beverages taxes in Mexico and Chile, using the Kaleidoscope Model for Policy Change, a framework developed for nutrition and food policy change analysis. We used a qualitative study design, including 24 key informant (KI) interviews (16 researchers, 5 civil society representatives and 3 food/beverage industry representatives), encompassing global and in-country perspectives. The analysis shows concurrence with the Kaleidoscope Model, highlighting commonalities in the policy change process. These included the importance of focusing events and coalitions for agenda-setting. Both top-down executive leadership and bottom-up pressure from civil society coalitions were important for the policy adoption as were flexible framing of the tax, and taking advantage of windows of opportunity. In both countries, the tax resulted from national, revenue-seeking fiscal reforms and in sub-optimal tax rates, as a result of the industry influence. KIs also discussed emerging evaluation results, highlighting differences in interpretation concerning the magnitude of change from the tax, and shared potential modifications to the current policies. This analysis contributes to a greater understanding of the policy change process focused on obesity prevention, using an innovative theoretical framework developed specifically for food and nutrition policy.

To understand the process by which immigrants adopt dietary practices, this study offers a binational comparison of factors that predispose, enable, and reinforce healthful eating in the sending and receiving countries. Data are from two qualitative studies that examined barriers and facilitators to healthful eating in El Salvador (four focus groups, n = 28 adults) and in the US (30 in-depth interviews n = 15 mothers recently migrated from Central America). There was a strong emphasis on hygiene and vitamin-content of foods among participants in El Salvador. In both settings, participants perceived that their respective community food environments (schools, food stores) exposed their families to highly processed, unhealthful foods. In both settings, they described similar struggles to encourage their families to eat foods healthfully (traditional, home-made foods). These results underscore the importance of acknowledging the changing food environment in sending countries where people may already be exposed to processed foods.