£1 Million To Help Shape Policies That Tackle Diet
1/02/2018
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London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine -
The best measures to further improve people's diets and lessen the rates of obesity, type-2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, should be evaluated in the new research project led from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Dr Laura Cornelsen, who may have been awarded a Career Development Fellowship from the Medical Research Council (MRC) worth £1m over 5 years, will lead the study. The MRC Career Development Awards support researchers seeking to establish their particular teams for challenging and ambitious research programmes.
The research will take into account the impact of measures, which are the cause of much debate in tackling poor diets - changes in food prices or industry-led voluntary changes, such as product reformulation, changing package sizes or removing sweets from till checkouts. This innovative five-year programme will use recent data on household food and beverage expenditures in Britain, spanning over 5 years to analyse food and drink choices, and purchases for consumption at and away from home.
Preventable non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including obesity and type-2 diabetes, affect populations all around the world. According to the World Health Organization , NCDs kill an estimated 40 million people annually, equivalent to 70% of deaths globally. Obesity, driven by overconsumption of unhealthy food and drinks, in addition to lower than recommended intake of healthier foods such as fruit and vegetables, are some of the key modifiable risk factors to NCDs.
In the UK, obesity rates did start to slow in early 2000's but you are still increasing, with all the prevalence likely to grow from 26% in 2015 to 35% in 2030. A 2014 report estimated the UK economic burden from morbidity connected with obesity and related NCDs may be as high as £47bn each year. This includes a direct cost to health services at the same time taking into the account the impact from lost productivity and premature death.
Food prices, including price promotions, affect demand for food and drink by influencing consumer purchases along with their consumption habits. Taxes and subsidies are thus often seen as potential targets for policymakers to influence healthier diets. However, it really is unclear how food industry-led voluntary changes, like product reformulation, have affected consumer behaviour and for that reason diets.
Dr Laura Cornelsen , Assistant Professor in Public Health Economics with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: I am delighted and intensely grateful to have received this fellowship from your Medical Research Council. Obesity as well as other non-communicable diseases are some of the world's most crucial health issues, and people's diets have a very major role to try out in these conditions, which is why more principals are needed to understand food and beverage purchase behaviours. Recent studies have mainly focused round the taxing of sugar-sweetened drinks but wider assessments of health-related food policies or voluntary food industry-led changes are scarce.
There is debate over which strategies are impressive in improving the availability and utilization of healthier products and reducing the usage of products that are less beneficial to health. Our research will help inform policymakers to adapt effective measures, or even to help avoid policies that will do more harm than good. This will support well-resourced countries like the UK, as well as developing nations where governments aim to seek out effective, proven solutions to combat the growing prevalence of non-communicable diseases.”
The best measures to further improve people's diets and lessen the rates of obesity, type-2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, should be evaluated in the new research project led from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.
Dr Laura Cornelsen, who may have been awarded a Career Development Fellowship from the Medical Research Council (MRC) worth £1m over 5 years, will lead the study. The MRC Career Development Awards support researchers seeking to establish their particular teams for challenging and ambitious research programmes.
The research will take into account the impact of measures, which are the cause of much debate in tackling poor diets - changes in food prices or industry-led voluntary changes, such as product reformulation, changing package sizes or removing sweets from till checkouts. This innovative five-year programme will use recent data on household food and beverage expenditures in Britain, spanning over 5 years to analyse food and drink choices, and purchases for consumption at and away from home.
Preventable non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including obesity and type-2 diabetes, affect populations all around the world. According to the World Health Organization , NCDs kill an estimated 40 million people annually, equivalent to 70% of deaths globally. Obesity, driven by overconsumption of unhealthy food and drinks, in addition to lower than recommended intake of healthier foods such as fruit and vegetables, are some of the key modifiable risk factors to NCDs.
In the UK, obesity rates did start to slow in early 2000's but you are still increasing, with all the prevalence likely to grow from 26% in 2015 to 35% in 2030. A 2014 report estimated the UK economic burden from morbidity connected with obesity and related NCDs may be as high as £47bn each year. This includes a direct cost to health services at the same time taking into the account the impact from lost productivity and premature death.
Food prices, including price promotions, affect demand for food and drink by influencing consumer purchases along with their consumption habits. Taxes and subsidies are thus often seen as potential targets for policymakers to influence healthier diets. However, it really is unclear how food industry-led voluntary changes, like product reformulation, have affected consumer behaviour and for that reason diets.
Dr Laura Cornelsen , Assistant Professor in Public Health Economics with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: I am delighted and intensely grateful to have received this fellowship from your Medical Research Council. Obesity as well as other non-communicable diseases are some of the world's most crucial health issues, and people's diets have a very major role to try out in these conditions, which is why more principals are needed to understand food and beverage purchase behaviours. Recent studies have mainly focused round the taxing of sugar-sweetened drinks but wider assessments of health-related food policies or voluntary food industry-led changes are scarce.
There is debate over which strategies are impressive in improving the availability and utilization of healthier products and reducing the usage of products that are less beneficial to health. Our research will help inform policymakers to adapt effective measures, or even to help avoid policies that will do more harm than good. This will support well-resourced countries like the UK, as well as developing nations where governments aim to seek out effective, proven solutions to combat the growing prevalence of non-communicable diseases.”
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