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An Intervention To Enhance the Food Environment in Public Recreation and Sport Settings: A Natural Experiment in British Columbia, Canada

Equity Focus

This study targets the impact of an intervention (healthy food and beverage sales) to improve the food environment in recreational and sporting facilities in British Columbia, Canada.

Case Summary

This project evaluated the impact of a capacity-building intervention (Healthy Food and Beverage Sales; HFBS) on organizational capacity for providing healthy food environments, health of vending machine products, and food policy development in recreation and sport facilities in British Columbia, Canada. Twenty-one HFBS communities received training, resources, and technical support to improve their food environment over 8 months in 2009-2010, whereas 23 comparison communities did not. Communities self-reported organizational capacity, food policies, and audited vending machine products at baseline and follow-up. Repeated-measures analysis of variance evaluated intervention impact. Intervention and comparison communities reported higher organizational capacity at follow-up; however, improvements were greater in HFBS communities. Healthy vending products increased from 11% to 15%, whereas unhealthy products declined from 56% to 46% in HFBS communities, with no changes in comparison communities. At baseline 10% of HFBS communities reported having a healthy food policy, whereas 48% reported one at follow-up.

Lessons Learned

• This is the first large, controlled study to examine the impact of an intervention to improve recreation and sport facility food environments. Healthy Food and Beverage Sales communities increased their self-rated capacity to provide healthy foods, healthy vending product offerings, and food policies to a greater extent than comparison communities. Recreation and sport settings are a priority setting for supporting healthy dietary behaviors among children.
  

LINK TO CASE STUDY