Pilot test of the NOURISHING policy index-Assessing governmental nutrition policies in five European countries

Anne-Siri Fismen; Jonas Rekdal Mathisen; Ioana Vlad; Kate Oldridge-Turner; Jennifer O'Mara; Knut-Inge Klepp; Hannah Brinsden; Harry Rutter; Margarita Kokkorou; Arnfinn Helleve

doi:10.1111/obr.13532

Pilot test of the NOURISHING policy index-Assessing governmental nutrition policies in five European countries

Obes Rev. 2023 Feb:24 Suppl 1:e13532. doi: 10.1111/obr.13532. Epub 2023 Jan 12.

Authors

Anne-Siri Fismen^{1

2}, Jonas Rekdal Mathisen^{1

3}, Ioana Vlad⁴, Kate Oldridge-Turner⁴, Jennifer O'Mara⁴, Knut-Inge Klepp^{5

6}, Hannah Brinsden⁷, Harry Rutter⁸, Margarita Kokkorou^{9

10}, Arnfinn Helleve¹

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Evaluation of Public Health Measures, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
² Department of Health Promotion, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Bergen, Norway.
³ Department of Social Inequality, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁴ Policy and Public Affairs Department, World Cancer Research Fund International, London, UK.
⁵ Division of Mental and Physical Health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway.
⁶ Department of Nutrition, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
⁷ World Obesity Federation, London, UK.
⁸ Department of Social and Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Bath, UK.
⁹ Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
¹⁰ European Commission's Joint Research Centre, Brussels, Belgium.

PMID: 36635980
DOI: 10.1111/obr.13532

Abstract

The NOURISHING database is a repository of more than 1000 verified nutrition and diet-related governmental policy actions currently in effect globally. The database is a unique and rich data source on governmental policy actions with a potential for developing tools that capture the overall policy efforts in a country, identify policy gaps, and enable cross-national comparisons. Policy actions from a sample of five European countries have been benchmarked against aspirational standards using the NOURISHING benchmarking tool. This paper presents the results of the pilot testing from the benchmarking process for the construction of the NOURISHING policy index. The development of the index was guided by existing tools for developing composite indicators. The findings from the pilot test indicate that the NOURISHING policy index can identify both policy gaps and cross-national policy differences. These results demonstrate that the policy index merits testing on a larger sample to identify potential refinements.

Keywords: NCD's; government actions; nutrition policy; obesity; public nutrition.

MeSH terms

Diet
Health Promotion* / methods
Humans
Nutrition Policy
Nutritional Status
Obesity*