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Investigating the impact of food vouchers on diet composition and the prevention of childhood obesity

调查食品券对饮食结构的影响和预防儿童肥胖

基本信息

批准号：
MR/V006991/1
负责人：
Grace Grove
金额：
$ 23.76万
依托单位：
University of Southampton
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2021
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2021 至无数据
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=MR%2FV006991%2F1
关键词：
Investigating impact food vouchers diet

项目摘要

Childhood obesity is increasing in the UK, and children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to live with obesity. Obesity in childhood is linked to obesity in adulthood and poor health outcomes. It is therefore vital that we work to prevent and reduce inequalities in childhood obesity. We know that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to have poor diets, and children who have poor diets are more likely to be obese. Therefore, improving diet quality of young families may contribute to preventing the development of childhood obesity. Healthy Start is a scheme in England that aims to improve diet quality by providing vouchers to spend on milk, fruit and vegetables to disadvantaged families. However, the voucher value is modest and has not changed for a decade, despite increasing food prices. The scheme needs assessing to consider how it can best support families, as uptake among eligible families is very low, at 54% nationally. Health visitors support young families, and give extra support to those with increased needs, including those from deprived groups. This provides a unique opportunity to support young families who are at risk of childhood obesity and eligible for Healthy Start. The aim of this research is to understand if voucher schemes can have a positive effect on diet quality of disadvantaged families.This research will contain several elements, including reviewing the literature for evidence on the effectiveness of voucher schemes, speaking to families and health visitors, collecting diet and shopping information from families, and modelling the best approach to a modified Healthy Start scheme.In phase one, a systematic review will be completed to collect evidence from the scientific literature on the effect of voucher-based schemes on diet quality and childhood obesity in children.Phase two includes collection of dietary information and speaking to parents receiving health visiting services and health visitors about food buying decisions, healthy diets and Healthy Start. In phase three, information from phases one and two will inform a statistical model that can be used to predict what people receiving the voucher would do if the vouchers were changed in some way. This will use Agent Based Modelling (ABM), a method that involves programming 'agents' (virtual people) to follow certain rules and interact with each other, allowing researchers to predict the impact of a change to Healthy Start. For example, if Healthy Start vouchers were increased to £5 (from the current value of £3.10) for families at risk of childhood obesity, what affect would this have on the food that people buy? The data gathered from phases one and two will be used to build the model accurately, thus ensuring that the model reflects real life as closely as possible.Patient and public involvement (PPI) work has already shaped this application and will continue to support the ongoing project, through outreach work aiming to increase diversity of contributors, and PPI contributors' involvement in a steering group. The results from this study will be communicated to participants using a summary sheet, and PPI contributors will be supported to disseminate the information to local communities. The findings will be written up for publication and submitted to conferences and peer reviewed journals in order to share with academic audiences. This study will inform policy, practice and further research by providing evidence on how best to modify Healthy Start to improve diet quality and provide support to disadvantaged families at risk of childhood obesity. The next step would be to trial the most successful modelled changes to Healthy Start in local populations. If successful, this has the potential to improve diet quality and reduce risk of childhood obesity in vulnerable families. This in turn may lead policy change contributing to reduced health inequality for children across England.

英国儿童肥胖症正在增加，来自弱势背景的儿童更有可能患有肥胖症。儿童期肥胖与成年期肥胖和不良健康结果有关。因此，我们必须努力预防和减少儿童肥胖方面的不平等现象。我们知道，来自弱势背景的儿童更有可能有不良的饮食习惯，而饮食习惯不良的儿童更有可能肥胖。因此，改善年轻家庭的饮食质量可能有助于预防儿童肥胖的发展。健康开端是英格兰的一项计划，旨在通过向弱势家庭提供购买牛奶、水果和蔬菜的代金券来改善饮食质量。然而，尽管食品价格不断上涨，但代金券的价值并不高，而且十年来一直没有变化。该计划需要评估，以考虑如何最好地支持家庭，因为符合条件的家庭的吸收率非常低，全国只有54%。保健视察员为年轻家庭提供支助，并为需求增加的家庭，包括贫困群体的家庭提供额外支助。这提供了一个独特的机会，以支持年轻的家庭谁是在儿童肥胖的风险，并有资格健康的开始。这项研究的目的是了解代金券计划是否能对弱势家庭的饮食质量产生积极影响。这项研究将包括几个要素，包括回顾文献以寻找代金券计划有效性的证据，与家庭和健康访客交谈，从家庭收集饮食和购物信息，以及模拟修改后的健康开始计划的最佳方法。在第一阶段，第二阶段包括收集饮食资料，并与接受健康探访服务的家长及健康探访员交谈，让他们了解购买食物的决定、健康饮食及健康起步。在第三阶段，第一阶段和第二阶段的信息将为统计模型提供信息，该模型可用于预测如果代金券以某种方式改变，收到代金券的人会做什么。这将使用基于代理的建模（ABM），一种涉及编程“代理”（虚拟人）遵循某些规则并相互交互的方法，使研究人员能够预测健康开始变化的影响。例如，如果有儿童肥胖风险的家庭的健康开始代金券增加到5英镑（从目前的3.10英镑），这会对人们购买的食物产生什么影响？从第一阶段和第二阶段收集的数据将用于准确地建立模型，从而确保模型尽可能接近地反映真实的生活。患者和公众参与（PPI）工作已经形成了这一应用程序，并将继续支持正在进行的项目，通过外联工作，旨在增加贡献者的多样性，以及PPI贡献者参与指导小组。这项研究的结果将使用摘要表传达给参与者，并将支持PPI贡献者向当地社区传播信息。研究结果将被撰写出版，并提交给会议和同行评审期刊，以便与学术界人士分享。这项研究将为政策，实践和进一步的研究提供信息，提供证据，说明如何最好地修改健康开始，以改善饮食质量，并为有儿童肥胖风险的弱势家庭提供支持。下一步将是在当地人群中试验最成功的健康开端模式变化。如果成功，这有可能改善弱势家庭的饮食质量，降低儿童肥胖的风险。这反过来可能导致政策变化，有助于减少英格兰各地儿童的健康不平等。