Children´s food environment
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Swedish Heart Lung Foundation, Stockholm, Sweden
Publication date: 2023-04-27
Popul. Med. 2023;5(Supplement):A1763
ABSTRACT
Background and Objective: Unhealthy dietary habits are causing a large part of the global disease burden. One third of the population lives with overweight or obesity. The cause of energy overconsumption is multifactorial and affected by both external and internal factors. One external factor affecting our attitudes, preferences and choice of food is our food environment, the social and physical environment in which we live. Methods: Students (age 13-14 years), from four schools were asked to take pictures of food advertisements in their surroundings. The purpose was to investigate what type of food advertisements children see in their everyday lives. The project involved 54 children and aimed to: locate areas where children are exposed to food advertisements, investigate what proportion of all food advertisements that promote unhealthy food in comparison to healthier foods and investigate the children’s thoughts about their food environment. The content of the ~3000 pictures was analysed. Six focus group interviews were conducted, where the students got to discuss their experiences of participating in the project and their thoughts about their food environment. Results: The analysis showed that 78 percent of all the recorded food advertisements promoted unhealthy foods or beverages, 21 percent marketed fruits, vegetable, berries, fish, or other seafood. The dominance of advertisements for unhealthy foods was evident in all the analysed areas. The analysis showed that approximately one in every four food advertisements contained some kind of special offer (for example buy 3 pay for 2). Out of these, 74 percent contained unhealthy food or beverages. Conclusions: The results of the report raises concerns about the food environment that children in Sweden are exposed to. The type of dietary patterns that are reflected in the Swedish advertising landscape are the opposite of how the national dietary guidelines recommend us to eat.