New Zealand is experiencing a rapid rise in the rate of obesity in both adult and child populations, with significant implications for public health. Major causes of death and disease are associated with obesity, including cancer, coronary heart disease, stroke and diabetes. The burden of disease affects the whole spectrum of New Zealand society, but has a disproportionate influence on Maori, Pacific peoples, and those on low incomes.
The HSC has been contracted by the Ministry of Health to develop a social marketing programme to promote healthy nutrition practices and environments related to the maintenance of healthy weights and prevention of obesity. Social marketing is the systematic application of marketing concepts and techniques to achieve specific behavioural goals relevant to social good.
Purpose
The purpose of this report is to summarise the findings of a rapid review of evidence on nutrition-related social marketing, in order to inform the development of social marketing approaches to promote healthy nutrition practices and environments. The focus of the work has been to investigate effective social marketing interventions for five known factors identified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as causally related to obesity:
• High intake of energy-dense, micronutrient-poor foods.
• High intake of sugar-sweetened soft drinks and fruit juices.
• High level of television viewing.
• Home environments that support healthy food choices for children.
• School environments that support healthy food choices for children.
Methodology
This rapid evidence review was undertaken with clear research questions, a comprehensive search of the published literature using appropriate search terms and databases, revision of abstracts and sourcing of papers. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied, along with a standard set of questions to help decide on the quality of each paper. Three of the six categories from Andreasen’s criteria of social marketing were required for the intervention to be defined as social marketing (see methodology section for further detail on the criteria).
In total, 83 social marketing papers were selected from an initial identification of 238 abstracts. There was variation in the number of references located for the various topics, with very few papers on social marketing in relation to high intake of sugarsweetened drinks or television viewing.
Theories and models of behaviour change are used to help design effective interventions, as they provide a basis for understanding behaviours. A number of theories are presented in this review, and several could be drawn upon to inform social marketing. Importantly, environmental factors are an acknowledged influence on obesity, and are continually interacting with personal factors and behaviour. With a recent emphasis on the ‘obesogenic environment’, ecological and social models have been applied to obesity prevention.