Development of a report card on healthy food environments and nutrition for children in Canada

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of the Report Card on Healthy Food Environments and Nutrition for Children is to assess how current environments and policies in Canada support or create barriers to improving children's dietary behaviours and body weights.

Method: In 2014 we reviewed the literature to identify indicators of the quality of children's food environments and related policies. Scoring systems used to monitor and report on progress on a variety of public health activities were consulted during development of a grading scheme. The Report Card was revised following reviews by an Expert Advisory Committee.

Results: The Report Card assigns a grade to policies and actions (42 indicators and benchmarks) within 4 micro-environments (physical, communication, economic, social) and within the political macro-environment. Grade-level scores of A through F are assigned that reflect achievement of, supports for, and monitoring of indicator-specific benchmarks. A Canadian Report Card will be released annually starting in 2015.

Conclusion: The Report Card is a novel tool to monitor the state of children's food environments and supportive policies, inform stakeholders of the state of these environments and policies, engage society in a national discussion, and outline a policy-relevant research agenda for further study.

Keywords: Childhood; Dietary behaviours; Food environment; Monitoring; Nutrition policy; Obesity; Report card.