Assessment of evaluations made to healthy eating policies in Europe: a review within the EATWELL Project

Federico Jose A Perez Cueto Eulert; Jessica Aschemann-Witzel; Bhavani Shankar; José Brambila-Macias; Tino Bech-Larsen; Mario Mazzocchi; Sara Capacci; Anna Saba; Aida Turrini; Barbara Niedzwiedzka; Beata Piorecka; Agniezska Kozioł-Kozakowska; Josephine Wills; W. Bruce Traill; Wim Verbeke

doi:10.1017/S1368980011003107

Assessment of evaluations made to healthy eating policies in Europe: a review within the EATWELL Project

Federico Jose A Perez Cueto Eulert^*, Jessica Aschemann-Witzel, Bhavani Shankar, José Brambila-Macias, Tino Bech-Larsen, Mario Mazzocchi, Sara Capacci, Anna Saba, Aida Turrini, Barbara Niedzwiedzka, Beata Piorecka, Agniezska Kozioł-Kozakowska, Josephine Wills, W. Bruce Traill, Wim Verbeke

^*Corresponding author for this work

42 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Objective To identify and assess healthy eating policies at national level which have been evaluated in terms of their impact on awareness of healthy eating, food consumption, health outcome or cost/benefit. Design Review of policy documents and their evaluations when available. Setting European Member States. Subjects One hundred and twenty-one policy documents revised, 107 retained. Results Of the 107 selected interventions, twenty-two had been evaluated for their impact on awareness or knowledge and twenty-seven for their impact on consumption. Furthermore sixteen interventions provided an evaluation of health impact, while three actions specifically measured any cost/benefit ratio. The indicators used in these evaluations were in most cases not comparable. Evaluation was more often found for public information campaigns, regulation of meals at schools/canteens and nutrition education programmes. Conclusions The study highlights the need not only to develop harmonized and verifiable procedures but also indicators for measuring effectiveness and success and for comparing between interventions and countries. EU policies are recommended to provide a set of indicators that may be measured consistently and regularly in all countries. Furthermore, public information campaigns should be accompanied by other interventions, as evaluations may show an impact on awareness and intention, but rarely on consumption patterns and health outcome.

Original language	English
Journal	Public Health Nutrition
Volume	15
Issue number	8
Pages (from-to)	1489-1496
Number of pages	8
ISSN	1368-9800
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980011003107
Publication status	Published - 2012
Externally published	Yes

Keywords

EATWELL Project
Europe
Food and nutrition policy
Healthy eating

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10.1017/S1368980011003107

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Perez Cueto Eulert, F. J. A., Aschemann-Witzel, J., Shankar, B., Brambila-Macias, J., Bech-Larsen, T., Mazzocchi, M., Capacci, S., Saba, A., Turrini, A., Niedzwiedzka, B., Piorecka, B., Kozioł-Kozakowska, A., Wills, J., Traill, W. B., & Verbeke, W. (2012). Assessment of evaluations made to healthy eating policies in Europe: a review within the EATWELL Project. Public Health Nutrition, 15(8), 1489-1496. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980011003107

Perez Cueto Eulert, FJA, Aschemann-Witzel, J, Shankar, B, Brambila-Macias, J, Bech-Larsen, T, Mazzocchi, M, Capacci, S, Saba, A, Turrini, A, Niedzwiedzka, B, Piorecka, B, Kozioł-Kozakowska, A, Wills, J, Traill, WB & Verbeke, W 2012, 'Assessment of evaluations made to healthy eating policies in Europe: a review within the EATWELL Project', Public Health Nutrition, vol. 15, no. 8, pp. 1489-1496. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1368980011003107

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title = "Assessment of evaluations made to healthy eating policies in Europe: a review within the EATWELL Project",

abstract = "Objective To identify and assess healthy eating policies at national level which have been evaluated in terms of their impact on awareness of healthy eating, food consumption, health outcome or cost/benefit. Design Review of policy documents and their evaluations when available. Setting European Member States. Subjects One hundred and twenty-one policy documents revised, 107 retained. Results Of the 107 selected interventions, twenty-two had been evaluated for their impact on awareness or knowledge and twenty-seven for their impact on consumption. Furthermore sixteen interventions provided an evaluation of health impact, while three actions specifically measured any cost/benefit ratio. The indicators used in these evaluations were in most cases not comparable. Evaluation was more often found for public information campaigns, regulation of meals at schools/canteens and nutrition education programmes. Conclusions The study highlights the need not only to develop harmonized and verifiable procedures but also indicators for measuring effectiveness and success and for comparing between interventions and countries. EU policies are recommended to provide a set of indicators that may be measured consistently and regularly in all countries. Furthermore, public information campaigns should be accompanied by other interventions, as evaluations may show an impact on awareness and intention, but rarely on consumption patterns and health outcome.",

keywords = "EATWELL Project, Europe, Food and nutrition policy, Healthy eating",

author = "{Perez Cueto Eulert}, {Federico Jose A} and Jessica Aschemann-Witzel and Bhavani Shankar and Jos{\'e} Brambila-Macias and Tino Bech-Larsen and Mario Mazzocchi and Sara Capacci and Anna Saba and Aida Turrini and Barbara Niedzwiedzka and Beata Piorecka and Agniezska Kozio{\l}-Kozakowska and Josephine Wills and Traill, {W. Bruce} and Wim Verbeke",

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T1 - Assessment of evaluations made to healthy eating policies in Europe

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AU - Perez Cueto Eulert, Federico Jose A

AU - Aschemann-Witzel, Jessica

AU - Shankar, Bhavani

AU - Brambila-Macias, José

AU - Bech-Larsen, Tino

AU - Mazzocchi, Mario

AU - Capacci, Sara

AU - Saba, Anna

AU - Turrini, Aida

AU - Niedzwiedzka, Barbara

AU - Piorecka, Beata

AU - Kozioł-Kozakowska, Agniezska

AU - Wills, Josephine

AU - Traill, W. Bruce

AU - Verbeke, Wim

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - Objective To identify and assess healthy eating policies at national level which have been evaluated in terms of their impact on awareness of healthy eating, food consumption, health outcome or cost/benefit. Design Review of policy documents and their evaluations when available. Setting European Member States. Subjects One hundred and twenty-one policy documents revised, 107 retained. Results Of the 107 selected interventions, twenty-two had been evaluated for their impact on awareness or knowledge and twenty-seven for their impact on consumption. Furthermore sixteen interventions provided an evaluation of health impact, while three actions specifically measured any cost/benefit ratio. The indicators used in these evaluations were in most cases not comparable. Evaluation was more often found for public information campaigns, regulation of meals at schools/canteens and nutrition education programmes. Conclusions The study highlights the need not only to develop harmonized and verifiable procedures but also indicators for measuring effectiveness and success and for comparing between interventions and countries. EU policies are recommended to provide a set of indicators that may be measured consistently and regularly in all countries. Furthermore, public information campaigns should be accompanied by other interventions, as evaluations may show an impact on awareness and intention, but rarely on consumption patterns and health outcome.

AB - Objective To identify and assess healthy eating policies at national level which have been evaluated in terms of their impact on awareness of healthy eating, food consumption, health outcome or cost/benefit. Design Review of policy documents and their evaluations when available. Setting European Member States. Subjects One hundred and twenty-one policy documents revised, 107 retained. Results Of the 107 selected interventions, twenty-two had been evaluated for their impact on awareness or knowledge and twenty-seven for their impact on consumption. Furthermore sixteen interventions provided an evaluation of health impact, while three actions specifically measured any cost/benefit ratio. The indicators used in these evaluations were in most cases not comparable. Evaluation was more often found for public information campaigns, regulation of meals at schools/canteens and nutrition education programmes. Conclusions The study highlights the need not only to develop harmonized and verifiable procedures but also indicators for measuring effectiveness and success and for comparing between interventions and countries. EU policies are recommended to provide a set of indicators that may be measured consistently and regularly in all countries. Furthermore, public information campaigns should be accompanied by other interventions, as evaluations may show an impact on awareness and intention, but rarely on consumption patterns and health outcome.

KW - EATWELL Project

KW - Europe

KW - Food and nutrition policy

KW - Healthy eating

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DO - 10.1017/S1368980011003107

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EP - 1496

JO - Public Health Nutrition

JF - Public Health Nutrition

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ER -

Assessment of evaluations made to healthy eating policies in Europe: a review within the EATWELL Project

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Keywords

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