Analyzing Food and Entertainment Companies’ Policies on Food Marketing to Children

The goal of this work is to provide an in-depth examination and comparison of industry efforts to self-regulate food and beverage marketing to children. More specifically, this macro-level analysis will: (a) analyze, compare, and contrast food and entertainment companies’ policies on food marketing to children with respect to their nutrition standards, media approaches covered, and More

Examining Policy and Practice in Digital Marketing of Food and Beverages to Children

The aim of this research is to examine new digital and interactive food and beverage marketing practices, primarily targeting children and adolescents. Specifically, this study will: (a) provide a comprehensive analysis of the digital food and beverage youth marketing infrastructure, explaining new platforms, technologies, advertising techniques, and market research practices for targeting children and adolescents, More

Reviewing Current State Child Care Regulations Related to Healthy Eating and Developing Model Healthy Eating Regulations

The overall goal of this project is to develop relevant, evidence-based resources to guide the creation or revision of state-level child care regulations aimed at promoting healthy eating. Investigators will systematically review and categorize data on state regulations for child-care centers and family child-care homes, and states will receive a ‘report card’ outlining their grade More

Studying and Documenting Industry Self-Regulation Strengths and Weaknesses in Addressing Food Marketing Practices that Contribute to Childhood Obesity

This project will examine the strengths and weaknesses of self-regulation in addressing food marketing practices that contribute to childhood obesity. Investigators will document the impact and effectiveness of the Children’s Advertising Review Unit (“CARU”) (the principal mechanism for self-regulation in this area) and the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative (“Initiative”) (a recent development involving More

Evaluating Two Meal Service Strategies for Moderating Energy Intake of Preschool-Aged Children

This research will evaluate the influence of two low-cost approaches to serving meals in child care programs on children’s dietary intake. Specifically, a randomized crossover design experiment will be conducted to examine whether serving fruits and non-starchy vegetables in advance of other menu items at lunch may increase children’s fruit and vegetable consumption and moderate More

Analyzing the Nature and Extent of Food Advertising During Children’s Programming on Spanish Language Television

The primary goal of this study is to evaluate the nutritional quality of the foods advertised on children’s programs on Spanish-language broadcast and cable channels, and to compare it to English-language channels. The study will examine a wide range of descriptive measures that include product type, persuasive theme/appeal, use of mascots, celebrities, licensed characters, contests, More

Survey of Eating Environments and Policies in Head Start

The aim of this study is to describe eating environments and policies in Head Start at the national level, examining their variation by program characteristics. In partnership with DHHS and USDA, this project will develop a survey to describe eating environments and policies in Head Start (including issues such as foods offered, use of nutrient-based More

Evaluating Whether NYC Group Day Cares Meet New City-Mandated Physical Activity and Nutrition Policies and Assessing Perceived Implementation Issues

In 2007, the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene added physical activity and nutrition policies for group daycare centers to the NYC Health Code. This project will evaluate whether NYC group daycares meet the new policies, and assess perceived difficulties, barriers, and predictors of implementation associated with these policies. Survey data will be collected More

Measuring, Analyzing and Examining Food Spending and Nutritional Quality in Family Day Care Participants in the USDA Child and Adult Care Food Program

The aim of this project is to examine how food costs and reimbursement rates impact the dietary quality of foods that are served in family day care homes. Taking advantage of a unique policy-analysis opportunity to assess the effects of different subsidy levels for providers in adjacent urban regions, this project will compare nutritional quality More