10 research outputs found
Are sweet snacks more sensitive to price increases than sugar-sweetened beverages: analysis of British food purchase data
This is the final published version. Available from BMJ Publishing Group via the DOI in this record.The data for this study were purchased from Kantar Worldpanel but its use is restricted to the persons named in the purchase contract which forbids the users to share the data with other potential (unnamed on the contract) users. Data access requests should be directed to Kantar Worldpanel.Objectives Taxing sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs)
is now advocated, and implemented, in many countries
as a measure to reduce the purchase and consumption
of sugar to tackle obesity. To date, there has been little
consideration of the potential impact that such a measure
could have if extended to other sweet foods, such as
confectionery, cakes and biscuits that contribute more
sugar to the diet than SSBs. The objective of this study is
to compare changes in the demand for sweet snacks and
SSBs arising from potential price increases.
Setting Secondary data on household itemised purchases
of all foods and beverages from 2012 to 2013.
Participants Representative sample of 32249 households in
Great Britain.
Primary and secondary outcome measures Change in
food and beverage purchases due to changes in their own
price and the price of other foods or beverages measured
as price elasticity of demand for the full sample and by
income groups.
Results Chocolate and confectionery, cakes and biscuits
have similar price sensitivity as SSBs, across all income
groups. Unlike the case of SSBs, price increases in these
categories are also likely to prompt reductions in the purchase
of other sweet snacks and SSBs, which magnify the overall
impact. The effects of price increases are greatest in the lowincome group.
Conclusions Policies that lead to increases in the price of
chocolate and confectionery, cakes and biscuits may lead to
additional and greater health gains than similar increases in
the price of SSBs through direct reductions in the purchases
of these foods and possible positive multiplier effects that
reduce demand for other products. Although some uncertainty
remains, the associations found in this analysis are sufficiently
robust to suggest that policies—and research—concerning
the use of fiscal measures should consider a broader range of
products than is currently the case.Department of Health in England Policy Research Programme (Policy Research Unit in Behaviour and HealthMedical Research Council (MRC
Change in non-alcoholic beverage sales following a 10-pence levy on sugar-sweetened beverages within a national chain of restaurants in the UK: interrupted time series analysis of a natural experiment
This is the final published version. Available from BMJ Publishing Group via the DOI in this record.The dataset used within this study is commercially
sensitive and is owned by a third-party. The data provider (Jamie’s Italian) will accept
requests to access to sales data used in the analyses presented here. These requests
should be made in writing to the Jamie Oliver Food Foundation (http://www.
jamieoliverfoodfoundation.org.uk).Background This study evaluates changes in sales of
non-alcoholic beverages in Jamie’s Italian, a national
chain of commercial restaurants in the UK, following the
introduction of a £0.10 per-beverage levy on sugarsweetened beverages (SSBs) and supporting activity
including beverage menu redesign, new products and
establishment of a children’s health fund from levy
proceeds.
Methods We used an interrupted time series design
to quantify changes in sales of non-alcoholic beverages
12 weeks and 6 months after implementation of the
levy, using itemised electronic point of sale data.
Main outcomes were number of SSBs and other nonalcoholic beverages sold per customer. Linear regression
and multilevel random effects models, adjusting for
seasonality and clustering, were used to investigate
changes in SSB sales across all restaurants (n=37) and
by tertiles of baseline restaurant SSB sales per customer.
Results Compared with the prelevy period, the
number of SSBs sold per customer declined by 11.0%
(−17.3% to −4.3%) at 12 weeks and 9.3% (−15.2%
to −3.2%) at 6months. For non-levied beverages, sales
per customer of children’s fruit juice declined by 34.7%
(−55.3% to −4.3%) at 12 weeks and 9.9% (−16.8%
to −2.4%) at 6months. At 6months, sales per customer
of fruit juice increased by 21.8% (14.0% to 30.2%)
but sales of diet cola (−7.3%; −11.7% to −2.8%) and
bottled waters (−6.5%; −11.0% to −1.7%) declined.
Changes in sales were only observed in restaurants in
the medium and high tertiles of baseline SSB sales per
customer.
Conclusions Introduction of a £0.10 levy on SSBs
alongside complementary activities is associated with
declines in SSB sales per customer in the short and
medium term, particularly in restaurants with higher
baseline sales of SSBsNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR)Medical Research Council (MRC)Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of ExcellenceUK Clinical Research CollaborationBritish Heart FoundationCancer Research UKEconomic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Wellcome Trus
Combining Families of Information Retrieval
This paper describes some experiments which use meta-learning to combine families of information retrieval (IR) algorithms obtained by varying the normalizations and similarity functions. By meta-learning, we mean the following simple idea: a family of IR algorithms is applied to a corpus of documents in which relevance is known to produce a learning set. A machine learning algorithm is then applied to this data set to produce a classifier which combines the di#erent IR algorithms
The major genetic determinants of HIV-1 control affect HLA class I peptide presentation.
Infectious and inflammatory diseases have repeatedly shown strong genetic associations within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC); however, the basis for these associations remains elusive. To define host genetic effects on the outcome of a chronic viral infection, we performed genome-wide association analysis in a multiethnic cohort of HIV-1 controllers and progressors, and we analyzed the effects of individual amino acids within the classical human leukocyte antigen (HLA) proteins. We identified >300 genome-wide significant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the MHC and none elsewhere. Specific amino acids in the HLA-B peptide binding groove, as well as an independent HLA-C effect, explain the SNP associations and reconcile both protective and risk HLA alleles. These results implicate the nature of the HLA-viral peptide interaction as the major factor modulating durable control of HIV infection