Preparing for an evaluation of new UK restrictions on TV food advertising and online food marketing: developing a concept map and collecting baseline data for a process evaluation

Background

In July 2020, the Department of Health & Social Care published an intention to ban adverts for food and drinks high in fat, salt or sugar (HFSS) on TV before 9pm and online promotion of these products. We will submit a funding application to the Public Health Research Programme for a Full Evaluation of this intervention that will primarily take a natural experimental approach using retrospectively accessible data.

However, it is important to develop a concept map of the intervention to guide design of the full evaluation; and to collect early qualitative data for our longitudinal qualitative process evaluation. We request Rapid Funding for this. Full Evaluation draft research questions (RQ)

1. Who were the key actors, and what were the key actions, involved in influencing intervention development, design, prioritisation and implementation? 2. Compared to pre-intervention trends, what was the impact of the intervention on: a. the availability and price of HFSS products in supermarkets? b. the extent & nature of TV food advertising and online food promotion (HFSS and not)?

c. exposure to TV food adverts and online food promotion (HFSS and not)? d. household purchasing of HFSS products? 3. What are the modelled impacts of the intervention on: a. prevalence of overweight, obesity and other health outcomes (modelled from 2d)? b. healthcare costs associated with outcomes modelled in 3a?

c. economic performance of relevant food, media & advertising industries & wider society? 4. How do answers to questions 2c, d and 3a vary between population groups? 5. What can we conclude about whether and how the intervention ‘worked’? Aims for Rapid Funding A. To develop a concept map of how the intervention may impact on health, the commercial food system and society.

B. To collect baseline data to contribute to answering RQ1. Methods

In the Full Evaluation, we will address RQ1 using a longitudinal qualitative interview study and documentary analysis. We will use interrupted time series and difference-in-difference analyses of in–house and commercially available data, and before-after analyses of internet food promotion data to address RQ2&4. We will address RQ3&4 by using the PrimeTime model and our Computable General Equilibrium model of the whole economy.

In the Rapid Funding, we will use Group Concept Mapping to address Aim A. Around 20 stakeholders representing relevant Government, civil society, academic and commercial organisations will be invited to one of two workshops. At these, they will generate, structure and prioritise potential pathways through which the intervention may impact on health, the commercial food system and society.

This will be used to refine the Full Evaluation RQ and design. We will address Aim B by recruiting around 15 stakeholders to take part in one-to-one qualitative interviews exploring their perceptions of the problem, policy and politics of the intervention. Timeline The Rapid Funding will be completed in 5 months.

Impact & dissemination

The impacts of our Full Evaluation will be understanding of whether and how food marketing restrictions can be designed to maximise public health gain. The intention of the Rapid Funding is to help refine the design of the Full Evaluation and collect baseline data for one component of that. We will write a paper and a research brief describing our concept map.