An analysis of potential barriers and enablers to regulating the television marketing of unhealthy foods to children at the state government level in Australia

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Bradley Crammond¹  Alexandra Chung¹  Bebe Loff¹  Anna Peeters¹  Gary Sacks²  Boyd Swinburn²  Jane Shill²  Mark Lawrence²  Steven Allender²  Helen Mavoa² 

[1] Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, BakerIDI Heart and Diabetes Institute, Monash University, Victoria, Australia;WHO Collaborating Centre for Obesity Prevention, Deakin University, Victoria, Australia;

关键词: Unhealthy food;    Regulation;    Government;    Children;    Marketing;    Advertising;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-12-1123

 received in 2012-07-10, accepted in 2012-12-12,  发布年份 2012

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundIn Australia there have been many calls for government action to halt the effects of unhealthy food marketing on children's health, yet implementation has not occurred. The attitudes of those involved in the policy-making process towards regulatory intervention governing unhealthy food marketing are not well understood. The objective of this research was to understand the perceptions of senior representatives from Australian state and territory governments, statutory authorities and non-government organisations regarding the feasibility of state-level government regulation of television marketing of unhealthy food to children in Australia.MethodData from in-depth semi-structured interviews with senior representatives from state and territory government departments, statutory authorities and non-government organisations (n=22) were analysed to determine participants' views about regulation of television marketing of unhealthy food to children at the state government level. Data were analysed using content and thematic analyses.ResultsRegulation of television marketing of unhealthy food to children was supported as a strategy for obesity prevention. Barriers to implementing regulation at the state level were: the perception that regulation of television advertising is a Commonwealth, not state/territory, responsibility; the power of the food industry and; the need for clear evidence that demonstrates the effectiveness of regulation. Evidence of community support for regulation was also cited as an important factor in determining feasibility.ConclusionsThe regulation of unhealthy food marketing to children is perceived to be a feasible strategy for obesity prevention however barriers to implementation at the state level exist. Those involved in state-level policy making generally indicated a preference for Commonwealth-led regulation. This research suggests that implementation of regulation of the television marketing of unhealthy food to children should ideally occur under the direction of the Commonwealth government. However, given that regulation is technically feasible at the state level, in the absence of Commonwealth action, states/territories could act independently. The relevance of our findings is likely to extend beyond Australia as unhealthy food marketing to children is a global issue.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Chung et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2012. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.