The relationship between unhealthy food sales, socio-economic deprivation and childhood weight status: results of a cross-sectional study in England

Howard Wilsher, Stephanie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3060-3270, Harrison, Florence, Yamoah, Fred, Fearne, Andrew and Jones, Andrew (2016) The relationship between unhealthy food sales, socio-economic deprivation and childhood weight status: results of a cross-sectional study in England. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 13. ISSN 1479-5868

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Abstract

Background: Recent increases in obesity prevalence have led to research into the neighbourhood food environment. Research suggests that proximity and density of food outlets around the home is associated with childhood obesity prevalence,however, the evidence is inconclusive, and associations between food outlet locations and diet are less clear. The purpose of this study is to assess area level associations between sales of unhealthy foods in supermarkets and weight status of children.  Methods: This study examined the association between weight status in children (4-5 year olds and 10-11 year olds) measured in the National Child Measurement Programme over three time points (2008/9, 2009/10, 2010/11) and annual sales of unhealthy foods (2012/3), as identified from a large supermarket chain. Geographical analysis was conducted to link store-based food sales for 537 stores with 6517 UK Census Areas. Unadjusted associations were examined with error-bar plots and line arregression was used to examine the relationship between the prevalence of overweight and obesity and sales of unhealthy food, while controlling for covariates known to predict weight status in children.   Results: A statistically significant relationship was identified between the sales of unhealthy foods and the prevalence of overweight and obese children in both age groups (p < 0.01). Of the covariates, area deprivation was positively associated with weight status (p <0.001). Non-white population (%) was negatively associated(p<0.001) with overweight and obesity among Reception children, but positively associated with the other weight statuses (p <0.001). A higher proportion of children in the same age group were associated with statistically significantly lower overweight and obesity prevalence in Reception (p <0.01) but not Year 6 children.  Conclusions: The study provides novel findings linking supermarket food sales with the weight status of children. Food sales in geographically referenced supermarkets are a valuable source of data for research into the factors that influence the weight of the surrounding population. Future research could identify factors that might modify food shopping in supermarkets and use of purchasing data could be an effective way to measure the impact of healthy eating campaigns on the weight status of children overtime.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://​creativecommons.​org/​licenses/​by/​4.​0/​), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://​creativecommons.​org/​publicdomain/​zero/​1.​0/​) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Uncontrolled Keywords: sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/good_health_and_well_being
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School
Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > School of Health Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Epidemiology and Public Health
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Business and Local Government Data Research Centre
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Health Promotion
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Public Health and Health Services Research
Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Innovation, Technology and Operations Management
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Groups > Dementia & Complexity in Later Life
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 24 Feb 2016 08:07
Last Modified: 20 Dec 2022 01:16
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/57223
DOI: 10.1186/s12966-016-0345-2

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