Browse by author
Lookup NU author(s): Dr Viviana AlbaniORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2024 The Author(s). Obesity published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of The Obesity Society.Objective: England has one of the highest childhood obesity rates in Europe. To promote a healthier food environment in 2015, Gateshead Council in North East England introduced planning guidelines effectively banning any new fast-food outlets. Our aim was to investigate whether this policy led to any reductions in childhood overweight and obesity prevalence and the inequalities in these outcomes. Methods: We used data from the National Child Measurement Programme, the Food Standards Agency Food Hygiene Rating Scheme data, and the Office of National Statistics between 2012 and 2020. We estimated a difference-in-differences model employing propensity score matching to identify a control group. Results: We found no significant change in population-level childhood overweight and obesity in Gateshead compared with control areas. In subgroup analysis by area-level deprivation, we found that the quintile of deprivation with the highest proportion of fast-food outlets had a statistically significant reduction of 4.8% in the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity compared with control areas. Conclusions: Restricting fast-food outlets in areas with a high concentration of such outlets as part of a package of policies to reduce childhood obesity may help to reduce prevalence and inequalities in childhood overweight and obesity.
Author(s): Xiang H, Goffe L, Albani V, Akhter N, Lake AA, Brown H
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Obesity
Year: 2024
Pages: epub ahead of print
Online publication date: 23/10/2024
Acceptance date: 10/06/2024
Date deposited: 04/11/2024
ISSN (print): 1930-7381
ISSN (electronic): 1930-739X
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Inc
URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/oby.24127
DOI: 10.1002/oby.24127
Altmetrics provided by Altmetric
