The impact of the novel coronavirus movement restrictions in the United Kingdom on food outlet usage and body mass index

Research funding University of Tabuk. Grant Number: 14451 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors thank Vasileios Kyparissis and Florina Birkert for their work with us in distributing and collecting the surveys. Ahmad Albalawi was supported by a studentship from the University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia (KSA) project code CF10434-63. John R, Speakman was supported by a Wolfson merit award from the Royal Society and a Presidents International Fellowship Initiative award from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Examining the validity and utility of two secondary sources of food environment data against street audits in England

Background: Secondary data containing the locations of food outlets is increasingly used in nutrition and obesity research and policy. However, evidence evaluating these data is limited. This study validates two sources of secondary food environment data: Ordnance Survey Points of Interest data (POI) and food hygiene data from the Food Standards Agency (FSA), against street audits in England and appraises the utility of these data. Methods: Audits were conducted across 52 Lower Super Output Areas in England. All streets within each Lower Super Output Area were covered to identify the name and street address of all food outlets therein. Audit-identified outlets were matched to outlets in the POI and FSA data to identify true positives (TP: outlets in both the audits and the POI/FSA data), false positives (FP: outlets in the POI/FSA data only) and false negatives (FN: outlets in the audits only). Agreement was assessed using positive predictive values (PPV: TP/(TP+FP)) and sensitivities (TP/(TP+FN)). Variations in sensitivities and PPVs across environment and outlet types were assessed using multi-level logistic regression. Proprietary classifications within the POI data were additionally used to classify outlets, and agreement between audit-derived and POI-derived classifications was assessed. Results: Street audits identified 1172 outlets, compared to 1100 and 1082 for POI and FSA respectively. PPVs were statistically significantly higher for FSA (0.91, CI: 0.89-0.93) than for POI (0.86, CI: 0.84-0.88). However, sensitivity values were not different between the two datasets. Sensitivity and PPVs varied across outlet types for both datasets. Without accounting for this, POI had statistically significantly better PPVs in rural and affluent areas. After accounting for variability across outlet types, FSA had statistically significantly better sensitivity in rural areas and worse sensitivity in rural middle affluence areas (relative to deprived). Audit-derived and POI-derived classifications exhibited substantial agreement (p < 0.001; Kappa = 0.66, CI: 0.63 - 0.70). Conclusions: POI and FSA data have good agreement with street audits; although both datasets had geographic biases which may need to be accounted for in analyses. Use of POI proprietary classifications is an accurate method for classifying outlets, providing time savings compared to manual classification of outlets

Planning and Public Health professionals’ experiences of using the planning system to regulate hot food takeaway outlets in England: A qualitative study

Takeaway food outlets offer limited seating and sell hot food to be consumed away from their premises. They typically serve energy-dense, nutrient-poor food. National planning guidelines in England offer the potential for local planning policies to promote healthier food environments through regulation of takeaway food outlets. Around half of English local government areas use this approach, but little is known about the process of adoption. We aimed to explore experiences and perceived success of planning policy adoption. In 2018 we recruited Planning and Public Health professionals from 16 local government areas in England and completed 26 telephone interviews. We analysed data with a thematic analysis approach. Participants felt that planning policy adoption was appropriate and can successfully regulate takeaway food outlets with the intention to improve health. They identified several facilitators and barriers towards adoption. Facilitators included internal co-operation between Planning and Public Health departments, and precedent for planning policy adoption set elsewhere. Barriers included “nanny-state” criticism, and difficulty demonstrating planning policy effectiveness. These could be considered in future guidelines to support widespread planning policy adoption

Trends in energy and nutrient content of menu items served by large UK chain restaurants from 2018 to 2020: an observational study

Funder: Gates Cambridge Trust; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100005370Funder: Public Health Research Programme; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100001921Funder: Centre for Diet and Activity Research; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100011032Funder: Wellcome Trust; FundRef: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100010269Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the change in energy and nutrient content of menu items sold in large UK chain restaurants (e.g., fast-food, full-service) from 2018 to 2020. Design: Observational study Setting: Energy and nutritional information of menu items served by 29 large UK chain restaurants that consistently provided this information online in all three years. Data were collected in 2018 (March – April), 2019 (April), and 2020 (October – November) from restaurant websites. Primary and secondary outcome measures: The per-item energy and nutrient (saturated fat, sugar, and salt) changes in all items available on menus (“all menu items”) and recurring items that were consistently available on menus in all three years (“core menu items”). Results: Our study included 7,770, 9,213, and 6,928 menu items from 29 chain restaurants in 2018, 2019, and 2020, respectively. Our results showed that sugar content declined from 2018 to 2020 among all menu items (per-item: -0.43g/year, 95%CI= -0.66, -0.21). This reduction in sugar was evident in beverages, sandwiches and desserts. Among core menu items (N=1,855), sugar content reduced significantly from 2018 to 2020 (per-item: -0.31g/year, 95%CI= -0.45, -0.17), especially in beverages. Energy, salt, and saturated fat content in menu items remained constant overall, in both all menu items and core menu items. Fewer food categories had significant changes in sugar, salt, and saturated fat content among core menu items, compared to all menu items. Conclusions: From 2018 to 2020, sugar content declined in restaurant menu items, which may reflect a response to the Sugar Reduction Strategy and the effects of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy. In contrast, there was little change in other nutrients. Future policies addressing the overall nutritional quality of restaurant foods, rather than single nutrients, may help the restaurant sector move towards offering healthier foods.This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (grant number MC_UU_00006/7) and the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC funded Centre of Public Health Research Excellence. Funding for CEDAR from Cancer Research UK, British Heart Foundation, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, and Wellcome Trust is gratefully acknowledged. YH is supported through a Gates Cambridge Scholarship. DT is supported by a PhD studentship awarded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), School for Public Health Research. TB and JA are supported by the CEDAR. No funders had any role in the study design; collection, analysis and interpretation of data; the writing of the manuscript; or the decision to submit the manuscript for publication

Electronic cigarette and smoking paraphernalia point of sale displays: an observational study in England

BACKGROUND: Tobacco point of sale (POS) retail displays are banned in many countries, including in England, due in part to evidence linking them to greater susceptibility to smoking in children. There is no equivalent ban on displays of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) or smoking paraphernalia (eg, cigarette lighters) in England, which are often positioned alongside covered tobacco storage units. This observational study describes the visibility and placement of e-cigarette and smoking paraphernalia POS displays in major tobacco retailers in two cities in England to inform future research examining their possible links to susceptibility to tobacco smoking, particularly in children. METHODS: Researchers visited all small- and large-format stores of four supermarket chains and a randomly selected sample of convenience stores, in Bristol and Cambridge. A standardised checklist was used to create a total visibility score for POS displays of (a) e-cigarettes and (b) smoking paraphernalia, plus other measures of visibility and placement. These were described for the total sample and compared between areas of low, medium, and high deprivation using general linear models adjusting for store location and store type. RESULTS: The visibility checklist was completed in 133 of 166 stores (80% completion rate). Both e-cigarette and smoking paraphernalia POS displays were present in 96% of stores. POS displays were highly visible across all stores: mean (SD) total visibility scores, out of 17, were 14.7 (1.8) for e-cigarettes and 12.7 (1.8) for smoking paraphernalia. There was no clear evidence of differences in visibility by area of deprivation. CONCLUSION: E-cigarette and smoking paraphernalia POS displays are near ubiquitous and highly visible in major tobacco retailers in two cities in England. The impact of these displays on tobacco smoking in children and adults is unknown, meriting urgent research to assess their effect on susceptibility to tobacco smoking in children

Saturated and trans-fatty acids in UK takeaway food

The aim of the study was to analyze the saturated fatty acid (SFA) and trans-fatty acid (TFA) contents of popular takeaway foods in the UK (including English, pizza, Chinese, Indian and kebab cuisine). Samples of meals were analyzed by an accredited public analyst laboratory for SFA and TFA. The meals were highly variable for SFA and TFA. English and Pizza meals had the highest median amount of SFA with 35.7 g/meal; Kebab meals were high in TFA with up to 5.2 g/meal. When compared to UK dietary reference values, some meals exceeded SFA and TFA recommendations from just one meal. Takeaway food would be an obvious target to reduce SFA and TFA contents and increase the potential of meeting UK recommendations. Strategies such as reformulation and smaller takeaway portion sizes warrant investigation

How different data sources and definitions of neighbourhood influence the association between food outlet availability and body mass index: a cross-sectional study.

Inconsistencies in methodologies continue to inhibit understanding of the impact of the environment on body mass index (BMI). To estimate the effect of these differences, we assessed the impact of using different definitions of neighbourhood and data sets on associations between food outlet availability within the environment and BMI. Previous research has not extended this to show any differences in the strength of associations between food outlet availability and BMI across both different definitions of neighbourhood and data sets. Descriptive statistics showed differences in the number of food outlets, particularly other food retail outlets between different data sets and definitions of neighbourhood. Despite these differences, our key finding was that across both different definitions of neighbourhood and data sets, there was very little difference in size of associations between food outlets and BMI. Researchers should consider and transparently report the impact of methodological choices such as the definition of neighbourhood and acknowledge any differences in associations between the food environment and BMI

Accessibility and Affordability of Supermarkets: Associations With the DASH Diet

$\textbf{Introduction:}$ It is unknown whether there is an interplay of affordability (economic accessibility) and proximity (geographic accessibility) of supermarkets in relation to having a Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)-accordant diet. $\textbf{Methods:}$ Data (collected: 2005–2015, analyzed: 2016) were from the cross-sectional, population-based Fenland Study cohort: 9,274 adults aged 29–64 years, living in Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom. Dietary quality was evaluated using an index of DASH dietary accordance, based on recorded consumption of foods and beverages in a validated 130-item, semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire. DASH accordance was defined as a DASH score in the top quintile. Dietary costs (£/day) were estimated by attributing a food price variable to the foods consumed according to the questionnaire. Individuals were classified as having low-, medium-, or high-cost diets. Supermarket affordability was determined based on the cost of a 101-item market basket. Distances between home address to the nearest supermarket (geographic accessibility) and nearest economically-appropriate supermarket (economic accessibility) were divided into tertiles. $\textbf{Results:}$ Higher-cost diets were more likely to be DASH-accordant. After adjustment for key demographics and exposure to other food outlets, individuals with lowest economic accessibility to supermarkets had lower odds of being DASH-accordant (OR=0.59, 95% CI=0.52, 0.68) than individuals with greatest economic accessibility. This association was stronger than with geographic accessibility alone (OR=0.85, 95% CI=0.74, 0.98). $\textbf{Conclusions:}$ Results suggest that geographic and economic access to food should be taken into account when considering approaches to promote adherence to healthy diets for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases and other chronic disease.This work was undertaken by the Centre for Diet and Activity Research, a UK Clinical Research Collaboration Public Health Research Centre of Excellence. Funding from the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, and Wellcome Trust, under the auspices of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, is gratefully acknowledged. Core MRC Epidemiology Unit support through programs MC_UU_12015/1 and MC_UU_12015/5 is acknowledged