Recall of government healthy eating campaigns by consumers in five countries

Abstract

Objective: To examine awareness and recall of healthy eating public education campaigns in five countries. Design: Data were cross-sectional and collected as part of the 2018 International Food Policy Study. Respondents were asked whether they had seen government healthy eating campaigns in the past year; if yes (awareness), they were asked to describe the campaign. Open-ended descriptions were coded to indicate recall of specific campaigns. Logistic models regressed awareness of healthy eating campaigns on participant country, age, sex, ethnicity, education, income adequacy and BMI. Analyses were also stratified by country. Setting: Online surveys. Participants: Participants were Nielsen panelists aged ≥18 years in Australia, Canada, Mexico, UK and US (n=22,463). Results: Odds of campaign awareness were higher in Mexico (50.9%) than UK (18.2%), Australia (17.9%), US (13.0%) and Canada (10.2%) (P<0.001). Awareness was also higher in UK and Australia versus Canada and US, and US versus Canada (P<0.001). Overall, awareness was higher among males versus females and respondents with medium or high versus low education (P<0.001 for all). Similar results were found in stratified models, although no sex difference was observed in Australia or UK (P>0.05), and age was associated with campaign awareness in UK (P<0.001). Common key words in all countries included sugar/sugary drinks, fruits and vegetables, and physical activity. The top five campaigns recalled were Chécate, mídete, muévete (Mexico), PrevenIMSS (Mexico), Change4Life (UK), LiveLighter® (Australia), and Actívate, Vive Mejor (Mexico). Conclusions: In Mexico, UK and Australia, comprehensive campaigns to promote healthy lifestyles appear to have achieved broad, population-level reach.

Exploring views of members of the public and policymakers on the acceptability of population level dietary and active-travel policies: a qualitative study

“…The public especially referred to C4L campaign as a perceived unadvertised policy, whose name was familiar but they were often unaware of its purpose. A recent cross-sectional study of 5,466 adults in the UK [ 68 ] showed that 18% of participants indicated awareness of public health campaigns and only 3% mentioned C4L as one such campaign, mainly people from higher education backgrounds. Policymakers focused on the role of media and how it can enhance or thwart policy perceptions and highlighted incorrect and inconsistent messages.…”

An Exploratory Study of Nutrition Knowledge and Challenges Faced by Informal Carers of Community-Dwelling People with Dementia: Online Survey and Thematic Analysis

“…In addition, historically and culturally, women traditionally provide food in the household, potentially explaining the overall higher nutrition knowledge [ 36 ]. Higher scores in the dietary guidelines and knowledge of food choices sections may have resulted from government campaigns [ 26 , 27 , 37 ]. However, lower knowledge in the food choices and the diet–disease relationship sections suggests that carers experienced difficulty in understanding more complex nutrition information compared with basic guidelines and general information [ 26 , 27 , 38 ].…”

Perceptions from Member-Consumers of a University Community for Sustainable and Healthy Eating: Evidence from Greece

“…Public health campaigns promoting food consumption and daily diet have been implemented through national programs, utilizing public dietary recommendations [45]. The appropriateness of interventions relies on their alignment with individuals' daily priorities, constraints, and the prevailing cultural values of their social environment [46,47]. Variations in people's interpretation of health can lead to notable variations in behavior; thus, nutrition education could be enhanced by designing customized intervention campaigns that effectively address the health-related motivations of specific subgroups [48][49][50].…”