Co‐creation of healthier food retail environments: A systematic review to explore the type of stakeholders and their motivations and stage of engagement

Abstract

Objective: To synthesize peer-reviewed literature that utilize co-creation principles in healthy food retail initiatives.Methods: Systematic review of six databases from inception to September 2021.Screening and quality assessment were carried out by two authors independently.Studies were included if they were conducted in food retail stores, used a collaborative model, and aimed to improve the healthiness of the food retail environment.Studies excluded were implemented in restaurants, fast food chains, or similar or did not utilize some form of collaboration. Extracted data included the type of stakeholders engaged, level of engagement, stakeholder motivation, and barriers and enablers of the co-creation process.

Addressing Health Disparities through Community Participation: A Scoping Review of Co-Creation in Public Health

“…Cocreation is frequently implemented in deprived communities, and it is an appropriate instrument for meeting public health objectives [ 28 , 29 ]. In line with the critiques given by Vargas et al, we agree that projects tend to focus more on the implementation of the actions, rather than the processes used to elicit community participation in the cocreation process [ 63 ]. Harnessing the full power of co-created public health initiatives to tackle health inequalities will require community members to be actively and equitably involved in all phases of the action.…”

CO-Creation and Evaluation of Food Environments to Advance Community Health (COACH)

“…The systematic review identified 23 articles that utilized various aspects of cocreation to improve the healthiness of food retail environments. 19 Cocreation of healthy food retail was most commonly used when developing initiatives with specific population groups, such as lower socioeconomic and indigenous communities where the needs and perspectives of these groups that are often marginalized in decision making may be overlooked. 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 Key elements of cocreation were the type of stakeholders involved, their level of engagement, and their motivations.…”

“… 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 Key elements of cocreation were the type of stakeholders involved, their level of engagement, and their motivations. 19 …”

“…Using cocreation provides an avenue to build health-enabling food environments mutually beneficial to all stakeholders within the food supply. 19 Cocreation involves all stakeholders (such as community, business, food suppliers, governments, and others) from exploration and articulation of needs to the creation, implementation, and evaluation of public health initiatives. 20 Cocreation has shown potential to empower and enhance efforts to create change in diverse fields such as technology, business, design, and community development.…”

Developing Co-Creation Research in Food Retail Environments: A Descriptive Case Study of a Healthy Supermarket Initiative in Regional Victoria, Australia

“…Since improving food retail environments in collaboration with retailers is a relatively new approach, it is common to see academic researchers [ 69 ] or organizations such as CHS leading the implementation and providing the funding. It could be theorized that figures/organizations holding the funds to conduct health-enabling strategies in food retail outlets will assume the leadership role, causing a power imbalance in this multi-stakeholder relationship.…”