Browsing by Author "Kraak, V."
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Item Monitoring and benchmarking government policies and actions to improve the healthiness of food environment Policy Index(John Wiley & Sons, 2013) Swinburn, B.; Vandevijvere, S.; Sanders, David; Kraak, V.; Sacks, G.; Snowdon, W.; Hawkes, Corinna; Barquera, S.; Friel, S.; Kelly, B.; Kumanyika, S.; L’Abbé, M.; Lee, A.; Lobstein, T.; Ma, J.; Macmullan, J.; Mohan, S.; Monteiro, Carlos; Neal, B.; Rayner, M.; Walker, C.Government action is essential to increase the healthiness of food environments and reduce obesity, diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and their related inequalities. This paper proposes a monitoring framework to assess government policies and actions for creating healthy food environments. Recommendations from relevant authoritative organizations and expert advisory groups for reducing obesity and NCDs were examined, and pertinent components were incorporated into a comprehensive framework for monitoring government policies and actions. A Government Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food- EPI) was developed, which comprises a ‘policy’ component with seven domains on specific aspects of food environments, and an ‘infrastructure support’ component with seven domains to strengthen systems to prevent obesity and NCDs. These were revised through a week-long consultation process with international experts. Examples of good practice statements are proposed within each domain, and these will evolve into benchmarks established by governments at the forefront of creating and implementing food policies for good health. A rating process is proposed to assess a government’s level of policy implementation towards good practice. The Food-EPI will be pre-tested and piloted in countries of varying size and income levels. The benchmarking of government policy implementation has the potential to catalyse greater action to reduce obesity and NCDs.Item Monitoring policy and actions on food environments: rationale and outline of the INFORMAS policy engagement and communication stategies(John Wiley & Sons, 2013) Brinsden, H.; Lobstein, T.; Sanders, David; Landon, J.; Kraak, V.; Sacks, G.; Kumanyika, S.; Swinburn, B.; Barquera, S.; Friel, S.; Hawkes, Corinna; Kelly, B.; L’Abbé, M.; Lee, A.; Ma, J.; Macmullan, J.; Mohan, S.; Monteiro, Carlos; Neal, B.; Rayner, M.; Snowdon, W.; Vandevijvere, S.; Walker, C.The International Network for Food and Obesity/non-communicable diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS) proposes to collect performance indicators on food policies, actions and environments related to obesity and non-communicable diseases. This paper reviews existing communications strategies used for performance indicators and proposes the approach to be taken for INFORMAS. Twenty-seven scoring and rating tools were identified in various fields of public health including alcohol, tobacco, physical activity, infant feeding and food environments. These were compared based on the types of indicators used and how they were quantified, scoring methods, presentation and the communication and reporting strategies used. There are several implications of these analyses for INFORMAS: the ratings/benchmarking approach is very commonly used, presumably because it is an effective way to communicate progress and stimulate action, although this has not been formally evaluated; the tools used must be trustworthy, pragmatic and policy-relevant; multiple channels of communication will be needed; communications need to be tailored and targeted to decision-makers; data and methods should be freely accessible. The proposed communications strategy for INFORMAS has been built around these lessons to ensure that INFORMAS’s outputs have the greatest chance of being used to improve food environments.