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Price, social life and proximity influence food choices: Engaging young people as co-researcher collaborators to better understand their surrounding school food environments
- S. Jia, A.A. Gibson, R. Raeside, R. Valanju, E. McMahon, B. Ren, F. Yan, K. Tse, M. X. Zeng, M. Allman-Farinelli, S.R. Partridge
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- Journal:
- Proceedings of the Nutrition Society / Volume 83 / Issue OCE1 / April 2024
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 07 May 2024, E157
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Food environments around secondary schools are a strong influence on adolescents’ food purchasing habits1. We conducted a repeat cross-sectional study using Google Street View to examine school food environments in regional and metropolitan NSW, Australia over 17-years. Findings showed that unhealthful food outlets such as fast-food franchises, consistently dominated school food environments over 2007-2023. Increasing levels of poor nutrition among youth has been raised as a concern2 by the Health Advisory Panel for Youth at the University of Sydney [HAPYUS] - an established group of 16 adolescents aged 13-18 years residing in NSW3. To gain further insight into the study findings and how it may impact adolescents’ health, it is critical to include voices of adolescents in this research. The aim of this sub-study was to engage with members of our youth advisory group and conduct a consultation exercise on these study findings, drawing upon their lived experiences of school food environments. In Aug-2023, we engaged four youth advisors from HAPYUS. Study authors provided an overview of the study and its findings to the youth advisors via a Zoom call. Youth advisors formulated a 500-word statement on their perspectives and lived experiences of food environments surrounding their high schools over the subsequent 4 weeks. Adolescents agreed that physical proximity to unhealthy food outlets around schools was a key contributor to unhealthy eating habits however also recognised social and economic factors which play a significant role in shaping poor diets. The following quotes from their combined statement reflect social and economic concerns: i) “[We] observed on a daily basis young people were opting to travel to the closest food court for fast food, or in some extreme cases, even order fast food via a meal delivery app, to be delivered to the school - as opposed to choosing the closest outlet” ii) “Overpriced foods in schools with some drinks costing 2x more than a heavily discounted KFC meal, no meaningful difference between foods sold at canteens and those sold at fast food outlets - heavily processed, packaged snacks, pre-made reheated foods” iii) “Most unhealthy food outlets choose a location that is not only close to schools but also close to major shopping centres and food courts… ideal for an after-school social catchup as it appears to accommodate the needs of a large group of people.” Consultation findings revealed the importance of social and economic factors that must be analysed in addition to adolescents’ physical proximity to food outlets around their schools. Youth advisors call for governments to take immediate action to implement policies that ensure schools have cheap and healthy foods at canteens to mitigate against the purchase of foods from nearby unhealthy food outlets.
Using Google Street View to examine changes in food environments around secondary schools in regional and metropolitan areas of New South Wales, Australia
- K. Tse, M.X. Zeng, A.A. Gibson, S.R. Partridge, M. Allman-Farinelli, S. Jia
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- Journal:
- Proceedings of the Nutrition Society / Volume 83 / Issue OCE1 / April 2024
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 07 May 2024, E60
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Food environments surrounding secondary schools are a known influence on the purchasing and consumption habits of adolescents(1). Understanding their obesogenic potential is important for informing strategies to create more healthful food environments for adolescents, particularly for those living in regional areas, and is a key component of Australia’s National Obesity Strategy(2). This repeated cross-sectional study examined the food environment surrounding secondary schools in regional and metropolitan New South Wales from 2007-2023. Google Street View was used to collect data regarding food outlets within a walkable distance (1.6 km) of all secondary schools in Wagga Wagga and Blacktown, our regional and metropolitan case study areas respectively, over 17 years. A Food Environment Score(3) tool was used to characterise the healthfulness of food environments by categorising food outlets into Food Outlet Type categories (e.g. Cafés, Fast-Food Franchises, Restaurants etc.) and Healthfulness categories (“Healthful”, “Less Healthful”, “Unhealthful”). Descriptive statistics were used to characterise changes in the food environments by Food Outlet Type and Healthfulness categories from 2007-2023. Chi-Squared tests were used to determine any significant differences in the proportion of healthful, less healthful and unhealthful food outlets between the regional and metropolitan study areas and between 2007 and 2023 in both areas. In both Wagga Wagga and Blacktown, the most common food outlet types surrounding secondary schools from 2007-2023 were classified as less healthful or unhealthful. As of 2023, less healthful food outlets [restaurants (19.4%), cafes (16.8%)] and unhealthful food outlets [fast-food franchises (15.1%), independent takeaway (14.1%)] were the most common food outlet types in Wagga Wagga, making up 52% and 36% of all identified food outlets respectively. These outlet types have remained the most prevalent over the 17-year period, though restaurants and cafes have since surpassed fast-food franchises and independent takeaway stores, by proportion, which were the most common in 2007. Similarly in Blacktown, 2023, less healthful [restaurants (21.1%), cafés (11.1%)] and unhealthful [fast-food franchises (17.4%)] were the most common food outlets, making up 41% and 37% of all identified food outlets. Restaurants, cafés and fast-food franchise outlets were consistently observed to be the most prevalent in Blacktown food environments over the 17-year study period. No significant difference was found when comparing the healthfulness profiles of regional and metropolitan food environments nor were significant changes observed between 2007 and 2023 in Wagga Wagga and Blacktown (p > 0.05 for all). The prevailing high proportion of less healthful and unhealthful food outlets near secondary schools in regional and metropolitan areas upholds the need for public health policies and planning strategies to address the obesogenic potential of school food environments.
Co-design of a personalised digital intervention to improve vegetable intake in adults living in Australian rural communities
- K.M. Livingstone, J.C. Rawstorn, L. Alston, S.R. Partridge, A. Bastian, K. Dullaghan, S.A. McNaughton, G.A. Hendrie, L.C. Blekkenhorst, R. Maddison, Y. Zhang, S. Barnett, J.C. Mathers, S.L. Godrich
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- Journal:
- Proceedings of the Nutrition Society / Volume 83 / Issue OCE1 / April 2024
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 07 May 2024, E101
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Diets low in vegetables are a main contributor to the health burden experienced by Australians living in rural communities. Given the ubiquity of smartphones and access to the Internet, digital interventions may offer an accessible delivery model for a dietary intervention in rural communities. However, no digital interventions to address low vegetable intake have been co-designed with adults living in rural areas(1). This research aims to describe the co-design of a digital intervention to improve vegetable intake with rural community members and research partners. Active participants in the co-design process were adults ≥18 years living in three rural Australian communities (total n = 57) and research partners (n = 4) representing three local rural governments and one peak non-government health organisation. An iterative co-design process(2) was undertaken to understand the needs (pre-design phase) and ideas (generative phase) of the target population through eight online workshops and a 21-item online community survey between July and December 2021. Prioritisation methods were used to help workshop participants identify the ‘Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, and Won’t-have or will not have right now’ (MoSCoW) features and functions of the digital intervention. Workshops were transcribed and inductively analysed using NVivo. Convergent and divergent themes were identified between the workshops and community survey to identify how to implement the digital intervention in the community. Consensus was reached on a concept for a digital intervention that addressed individual and food environment barriers to vegetable intake, specific to rural communities. Implementation recommendations centred on i) food literacy approaches to improve skills via access to vegetable-rich recipes and healthy eating resources, ii) access to personalisation options and behaviour change support, and iii) improving the community food environment by providing information on and access to local food initiatives. Rural-dwelling adults expressed preferences for personalised intervention features that can enhance food literacy and engagement with community food environments. This co-design process will inform the development of a prototype (evaluation phase) and feasibility testing (post-design phase) of this intervention. The resulting intervention is anticipated to reduce barriers and support enablers, across individual and community levels, to facilitate higher consumption of vegetables among rural Australians. These outcomes have the potential to contribute to improved wellbeing in the short term and reduced chronic disease risk in the long term, decreasing public health inequities.
Determination of opacity data bases for TiO and H2O
- S.R. Langhoff, D.W. Schwenke, H. Partridge
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- Journal:
- Symposium - International Astronomical Union / Volume 178 / 1997
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 25 May 2016, pp. 295-303
- Print publication:
- 1997
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Current ab initio methods for determining potential energy surfaces are discussed in relation to the TiO and H2O molecules, both of which make important contributions to the opacity of M-type stars. For the TiO molecule we discuss the determination of the radiative lifetimes of the excited states and band oscillator strengths for both the triplet and singlet band systems. While the theoretical radiative lifetimes for TiO agree well with recent measurements, the band oscillator strengths differ significantly from those currently employed in opacity calculations. For the H2O molecule we discuss the current results for the ground state potential energy and dipole moment surfaces generated at NASA Ames. We show that it is necessary to account for such effects as core-valence correlation to generate a potential energy surface of near spectroscopic accuracy. The current status of our effort to establish opacity data bases for both TiO and H2O is described.