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Accepted manuscript

Examining public support for comprehensive policy packages to tackle unhealthy food environments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2024

Simone Wahnschafft Open the ORCID record for Simone Wahnschafft [Opens in a new window] ,
Achim Spiller ,
Yasemin Boztuğ ,
Peter von Philipsborn Open the ORCID record for Peter von Philipsborn [Opens in a new window]  and
Dominic Lemken
Simone Wahnschafft*
Affiliation:
Research Training Group in Sustainable Food Systems, University of Göttingen, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 12, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, [email protected]
Achim Spiller
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development, Marketing for Food and Agricultural Products, University of Göttingen, Platz der Göttinger Sieben 5, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, [email protected]
Yasemin Boztuğ
Affiliation:
Department of Business Administration, University of Goettingen, 37073, Goettingen, Germany, [email protected]
Peter von Philipsborn
Affiliation:
Chair of Public Health and Health Services Research, Institute for Medical Information Processing, Biometry, and Epidemiology (IBE), LMU Munich, Munich 80539, Germany Pettenkofer School of Public Health, Munich, Germany, [email protected]
Dominic Lemken
Affiliation:
Institute for Food and Resource Economics, University of Bonn, Nußallee 21, 53115 Bonn, Germany, [email protected]
*
Corresponding author: Simone Wahnschafft, Heinrich-Düker-Weg 12, 37073 Göttingen, Germany, [email protected], +16179537872
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Abstract

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Objective:

This study examines public support—and its drivers—for comprehensive policy packages (i.e., bundles of coherent policy measures introduced together) aimed at improving food environments.

Design:

Participants completed an online survey with a choice-based conjoint experiment, where they evaluated pairs of policy packages comprising up to seven distinct food environment measures. After choosing a preferred package or opting for a single policy, participants designed their ideal policy package. Based on their choices, respondents were categorized as resistant, inclined, or supportive towards policy packaging according to their frequency of opting out for single measures and the number of policies they included in their ideal package.

Setting:

The study was conducted in Germany via an online survey.

Participants:

The sample included 1,200 eligible German voters, recruited based on age, gender, and income quotas.

Results:

Based on both opt-out frequency (44.7%) and ideal policy packaging (72.8%) outcomes, most respondents were inclined towards policy packages. The inclusion of fiscal incentives and school-based measures in packages enhanced support, while fiscal disincentives reduced it. Key drivers of support included beliefs about the importance of diet-related issues and the role of government in regulation, while socio-demographic factors, political leaning, and personal experience with diet-related disease had minimal impact.

Conclusions:

The results reveal public appetite for policy packages to address unhealthy food environments, contingent on package design and beliefs about the issue’s severity and legitimacy of intervention. Public health advocates should design and promote policy packages aligned with public preferences, especially given anticipated opposition from commercial interests.

Keywords

Policy packagingFood environmentsPublic supportConjoint experiment
Type
Research Paper
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Accepted manuscript , pp. 1 - 32
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Authors 2024