Posted: June 29, 2020
Decreasing the availability of less healthy food, alcohol or tobacco products has been highlighted as a potentially promising intervention to change behaviours that could prevent premature deaths caused by overconsumption of food, alcohol and tobacco
https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD012573.pub2/full
However, there are many ways to change availability of products that harm health – the presence vs. absence of tobacco products in a local shop; two vs. six kinds of non-alcoholic beer available in your local pub; 25% vs. 75% of a vending machine filled with high-calorie sweet snacks.
Research to date has lacked either a conceptualisation or a consistent conceptualisation, hampering our ability to compare studies and potentially to identify ways of optimising interventions targeting product availability.
In this new paper we describe a conceptual framework to reliably describe and compare availability interventions.
The framework divides availability interventions into three main categories:
Using this framework will also help to identify and shape further research questions including understanding mechanisms underlying different types of availability interventions as a basis for optimising one of the more promising interventions for changing behaviour to improve health for all.
For further information, please see the full paper at https://rdcu.be/b5ihy
