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Monitoring policy and actions on food environments: rationale and outline of the INFORMAS policy engagement and communication strategies
journal contribution
posted on 2013-10-01, 00:00 authored by H Brinsden, T Lobstein, J Landon, Vivica Ingrid Kraak, Gary SacksGary Sacks, S Kumanyika, Boyd Swinburn, S Barquera, S Friel, C Hawkes, B Kelly, M L'Abbe, A Lee, J Ma, J Macmullen, S Mohan, C Monteiro, B Neal, M Rayner, D Sanders, Wendy Snowdon, S Vandevijvere, C WalkerThe International Network for Food and Obesity/non-communicable diseases Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS) proposes to collect performance indicators on food policies, actions and environments related to obesity and non-communicable diseases. This paper reviews existing communications strategies used for performance indicators and proposes the approach to be taken for INFORMAS. Twenty-seven scoring and rating tools were identified in various fields of public health including alcohol, tobacco, physical activity, infant feeding and food environments. These were compared based on the types of indicators used and how they were quantified, scoring methods, presentation and the communication and reporting strategies used. There are several implications of these analyses for INFORMAS: the ratings/benchmarking approach is very commonly used, presumably because it is an effective way to communicate progress and stimulate action, although this has not been formally evaluated; the tools used must be trustworthy, pragmatic and policy-relevant; multiple channels of communication will be needed; communications need to be tailored and targeted to decision-makers; data and methods should be freely accessible. The proposed communications strategy for INFORMAS has been built around these lessons to ensure that INFORMAS's outputs have the greatest chance of being used to improve food environments.
History
Journal
Obesity reviewsVolume
14Issue
Supplement S1Pagination
13 - 23Publisher
Wiley-BlackwellLocation
Chichester, EnglandISSN
1467-7881eISSN
1467-789XLanguage
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2013, Wiley-Blackwell PublishingUsage metrics
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