Project Details

Project timelines

2023 - 2027

Active

Project leads

Dr Miranda Blake

Professor Adrian Cameron

Research domain

Deakin Centre for Global Preventive Health and Nutrition

Promoting CHANGE (Community Health, Nutrition, and Government Engagement) is working to find practical ways to help local councils make and keep improvements to healthy food retail options in places that support good health. The goal is to make healthier food and drinks easier to find and buy, and to see if these changes are effective and cost-efficient. Seven local councils in Victoria are taking part between August 2023 and July 2027. Three of the councils are testing the changes by following the Victorian Healthy Choices Guidelines and using marketing strategies known as the 4Ps (Product, Price, Place, Promotion) to guide their efforts.

Challenge

Food retail outlets in sports and recreation facilities often fail to support healthy eating, despite aligning with healthy lifestyles and goals of local governments that often own them. Local governments face barriers to implementation, maintenance and scaling up healthy food provision including: 1) lack of skilled human resource time; 2) lack of capability in those driving change at the retail level; and 3) lack of incentives for change.

Solution

The Promoting CHANGE initiative was co-designed to support local governments improve and sustain healthier food and drink offerings in these settings. The co-designed initiative includes human resource support, training, tools, technical assistance, community-of-practice groups, feedback to food retailers based on food outlet audit and sales data, and small grant incentives. This 3-year study uses a type 2 effectiveness-implementation hybrid design with a cluster randomized controlled trial to assess 2 main outcomes: (1) a decrease in the proportion of the least healthy food and drink items available, and (2) a decrease in the proportion of these items purchased weekly, compared to control sites. Secondary outcomes include changes in overall sales and revenue, how well facilities adopt and sustain healthy changes, progress in policy implementation, and an economic evaluation to determine cost-effectiveness.

Impact

This is the first controlled study to test a comprehensive healthy food retail support package across a variety of local government sport and recreation settings. The results will inform future health promotion policy and practice across more than 500 Australian local governments, and have broader relevance for community organisations, including healthcare providers, schools, and commercial retailers globally.

Partners

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