Planning policies to restrict fast food and inequalities in child weight in England : A quasi-experimental analysis

Xiang, Huasheng and Goffe, Louis and Albani, Viviana and Akhter, Nasima and Lake, Amelia and Brown, Heather (2024) Planning policies to restrict fast food and inequalities in child weight in England : A quasi-experimental analysis. Obesity. ISSN 1930-739X

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Abstract

Objectives: England has one of the highest childhood obesity rates in Europe. To promote a healthier food environment in 2015, Gateshead Council in the North-East of England introduced planning guidelines effectively banning any new fast-food outlets. Our aim was to investigate if this policy led to any reductions in childhood overweight and obesity prevalence and inequalities in these outcomes. Methods: We used data from National Child Measurement Programme, Food Standard Agency Food Hygiene Rating Data, and Office of National Statistics between 2012-2020. We estimated a difference in difference model employing propensity score matching to identify a control group. Results: We found no significant change in population level childhood overweight and obesity in Gateshead compared to control areas. In sub-group analysis by area level deprivation, we found that the quintile of deprivation with the highest proportion of fast-food outlets had a statistically significant reduction of 4.80% in the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity compared to control areas. Conclusion: Restricting fast food outlets in areas with a high concentration of these outlets as part of a package of policies to reduce childhood obesity may help to reduce prevalence and inequalities in childhood overweight and obesity.