Associations of community programs and policies with children's dietary intakes: the Healthy Communities Study

Abstract

Multiple characteristics of CPPs to prevent obesity appear important to improve children's diets.

Objectives of community policies and programs associated with more healthful dietary intakes among children: findings from the Healthy Communities Study

“…Ritchie et al . investigated relationships between count and intensity scores and dietary measures . Building on that paper, here we aimed to look in‐depth at relationships between dietary outcomes and CPP objectives: which nutrition behaviours were addressed and the aims of food environment change strategies used, if any.…”

“…For this paper, CPPs addressing nutrition (alone or with PA) were classified into sub‐types according to two characteristics: (i) the specific nutrition behaviours they targeted (increasing consumption of FV, whole grains and water and decreasing consumption of SSBs, high‐calorie snacks and sweets, fat and fast food) and (ii) the aim of any reported food environment change strategy (increasing the availability or the affordability of healthful foods, restricting the availability of less healthy foods, instituting smaller portion sizes) as described by COCOMO and listed in Table . CPPs not reporting COCOMO strategies were coded as ‘not applicable’, and those with insufficient information about their strategies were coded as ‘other’.…”

“…No significant associations were found between the nutrition CPP intensity or count scores targeting specific behaviours ( Table 2) and children's intakes of sugar from SSBs or total added sugar (Supporting Information). (19). Building on that paper, here we aimed to look in-depth at relationships between dietary outcomes and CPP objectives: which nutrition behaviours were addressed and the aims of food environment change strategies used, if any.…”

Community characteristics modify the relationship between obesity prevention efforts and dietary intake in children: the Healthy Communities Study

“…For this paper, we examined the following two of the four indices described by Ritchie et al . , selected because each measured distinctly different aspects of CPPs.…”

“…Because associations between CPP scores and dietary intakes were similar for the prior 1, 3, 6 and 10 years , only the prior 6‐year results were examined for this paper. For each of the two selected indices, CPP‐Behav and CPP‐Strat, scores were generated for all CPPs (those with nutrition and/or PA goals) and for just nutrition CPPs (those with nutrition goals with or without PA goals) for a total of four CPP scores examined per community.…”