TY - JOUR
T1 - Systematic review of the effect of policies to restrict the marketing of foods and non-alcoholic beverages to which children are exposed
AU - Boyland, Emma
AU - McGale, Lauren
AU - Maden, Michelle
AU - Hounsome, Juliet
AU - Boland, Angela
AU - Jones, Andrew
N1 - Funding Information:
This article was supported by funding from the World Health Organization. The WHO NUGAG Subgroup on Policy Actions specified the PICO criteria (including exposure and outcome measures) and confirmed or modified the certainty judgments but had no role in data collection, data analysis, other data interpretation, or writing of the article.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Obesity Reviews published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of World Obesity Federation.
PY - 2022/7/13
Y1 - 2022/7/13
N2 - This systematic review examined the effectiveness of policies restricting the marketing of foods and/or non-alcoholic beverages to children to inform updated World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Databases were searched to March 2020. Inclusion criteria were primary studies of any design assessing implemented policies to restrict food marketing to children (0–19 years). Critical outcomes were exposure to and power of marketing, dietary intake, choice, preference, and purchasing. Important outcomes were purchase requests, dental caries, body weight, diet-related noncommunicable diseases, product change, and unintended consequences. Forty-four observational studies met inclusion criteria; most were moderate quality. Pooling was conducted using vote counting by direction of effect, and GRADE was used to judge evidence certainty. Evidence suggests food marketing policies may result in reduced purchases of unhealthy foods and in unintended consequences favorable for public health. Desirable or potentially desirable (for public health) effects of policies on food marketing exposure and power were also found. Evidence on diet and product change was very limited. The certainty of evidence was very low for four outcomes (exposure, power, dietary intake, and product change) and low for two (purchasing and unintended consequences). Policies can effectively limit food marketing to children; policymakers should prioritize mandatory approaches aligned with WHO recommendations.
AB - This systematic review examined the effectiveness of policies restricting the marketing of foods and/or non-alcoholic beverages to children to inform updated World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines. Databases were searched to March 2020. Inclusion criteria were primary studies of any design assessing implemented policies to restrict food marketing to children (0–19 years). Critical outcomes were exposure to and power of marketing, dietary intake, choice, preference, and purchasing. Important outcomes were purchase requests, dental caries, body weight, diet-related noncommunicable diseases, product change, and unintended consequences. Forty-four observational studies met inclusion criteria; most were moderate quality. Pooling was conducted using vote counting by direction of effect, and GRADE was used to judge evidence certainty. Evidence suggests food marketing policies may result in reduced purchases of unhealthy foods and in unintended consequences favorable for public health. Desirable or potentially desirable (for public health) effects of policies on food marketing exposure and power were also found. Evidence on diet and product change was very limited. The certainty of evidence was very low for four outcomes (exposure, power, dietary intake, and product change) and low for two (purchasing and unintended consequences). Policies can effectively limit food marketing to children; policymakers should prioritize mandatory approaches aligned with WHO recommendations.
KW - children
KW - exposure
KW - food marketing
KW - policy
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U2 - https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13447
DO - https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13447
M3 - Article (journal)
C2 - 35384238
AN - SCOPUS:85127572470
SN - 1467-7881
VL - 23
SP - e13447
JO - Obesity Reviews
JF - Obesity Reviews
IS - 8
M1 - e13447
ER -