Our researchers to showcase work at International Congress on Obesity

Our team of researchers are thrilled to be sharing their projects and knowledge of healthy food retail research at the International Congress on Obesity (ICO) from Tuesday, October 18 to Saturday, October 22, in Melbourne.

This is the first time the event has been in Australia in 16 years, and our team are pleased to have been selected to present at the pre-eminent global gathering for experts in obesity.

Our team’s ICO contributions include:

POSTER PRESENTATIONS:

Poster Session 1: Wednesday, October 19 – 4.20pm-5.30pm – Poster & Exhibition Area

 

Dr Tara Boelsen-Robinson

Title: Testing implementation resources with end-users: the creation of a healthy food retail Implementation Toolkit

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Oliver Huse

Title: The effectiveness of nutrition-related food outlet-level accreditation schemes: a systematic review

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Dr Cindy Needham

Title: BMI and the food retail environment in Melbourne, Australia: Associations and temporal trends

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Dr Tailane Scapin

Title: Sugar labelling in Brazil: will the new food labelling regulation help to reduce the sugar overconsuming in the country?

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Dr Adyya Gupta

Title: Complex Food Environment: A systematic review

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Poster Session 2: Thursday, October 20 – 4.20pm-5.30pm – Poster & Exhibition Area

 

Damian Maganja 

Title: Are online supermarkets providing sufficient nutrition information to support consumer decision-making?

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Dr Shaan Naughton

Title: Mapping the outcomes of the Centre of Research Excellence in Food Retail Environments for Health (RE-FRESH)

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Dr Jaithri Ananthapavan

Title: Cost-benefit analysis to demonstrate the potential value-for-money of supermarket shelf tags promoting healthier packaged products in Australia.

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Prof. Cliona Ni Mhurchu

Title: The Effect of Voluntary Health Star Rating Labels on Healthier Food Purchasing in New Zealand: Longitudinal Evidence using Representative Household Purchase Data.

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Poster Session 3: Friday, October 21 – 3pm-4pm – Poster & Exhibition Area

 

Dr Shaan Naughton

Title: Evaluation of a healthy food and drink policy in 13 recreation centres: an observational study

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Dr Tailane Scapin

Title: Transformations in the retail food sector in East Asia

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Dr Adyya Gupta

Title: Public support for policy interventions addressing high sugars intake in Australia: a population-based study

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Dr Christina Zorbas

Title: A review of efforts to advance equity and community voices in food and obesity prevention policy

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Dr Erica Reeve

Title: A pathway towards the adoption of fiscal policies to promote food systems outcomes in the Pacific Islands

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Sally Schultz

Title: Local government perspectives on strengthening equity in local healthy eating policies

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Dr Tari Forrester-Bowling

Title: Developing systems-informed tools to support the implementation of healthy food retail

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ORAL PRESENTATIONS:

 

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18 –

 

Date/Time/Location: Tuesday, October 18, 3.40pm-4.30pm, Plenary 3

Prof. Boyd Swinburn: ICO 2022 William Philip T James Award Winner, and RE-FRESH researcher, will open ICO with a plenary lecture “The global syndemic and beyond”, drawing on decades of research to reduce obesogenics food environment, including contributions to over 30 WHO consultations and reports on obesity, and 2 Lancet Commissions.

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WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19 –

 

Session Title: Role of policy in shaping food environment, chaired by RE-FRESH researcher Prof. Cliona Ni Mhurchu

Date/Time/Location: Wednesday, October 19, 11.15am-12.30pm, Meeting Room 219

RE-FRESH presenters:

• Josephine Marshall (11.15am-11.30): “Australian food industry perspectives of their role in influencing consumer demand”; Ms Marshall will present insights gained from a randomised-controlled trial currently underway to assess the effects of providing tailored support to food companies to improve their nutrition-related policies and practices.
• Dr Erica Reeve (11.45-12pm): “Evidence-based policy implementation in the Pacific Islands”; In this presentation Dr Reeve will detail some of the reasons that the implementation of diet-related NCD policies has been challenging for Pacific Island Countries, which were explored through indepth interviews with policy makers in four countries.
• Lily Grigsby-Duffy (12pm-12.15pm) “The impact of price promotions on purchase behaviour and the acceptability of a policy to restrict price promotions on unhealthy foods and beverages: Findings from a cross-sectional multi-country survey”; Analysing data from the 2020 International Food Policy Study, this study adds to the growing evidence of public support for policies to increase the healthiness of food retail environments.

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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20:

 

Session Title: Ultra-processed foods in contemporary society

Date/Time/Location: Thursday, October 20, 8am-9.30am, Meeting Room 212 & 213

RE-FRESH Presenters:

• Dr Clara Gomez-Donoso (8am-8.15am): “Changes in consumption frequency and purchasing trends of foods prepared at home and outside the home during COVID-19: results from the International Food Policy Study” Dr Gomez-Donoso will present the major findings of her study, including a tendency towards eating less food prepared outside the home, which add to the body of evidence generated through the International Food Policy Study, which is led in Australia by RE-FRESH researchers A/Prof. Adrian Cameron and A/Prof. Gary Sacks.
• Ella Robinson (8.30am-8.45am): “Investment sector perspectives on challenges and opportunities to incorporating nutrition within investment decision-making”; Ms Robinson will present on aspects of her PhD projects, which explores how the investment sector accounts for health in their decision making, and how this can be improved.

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 Session Title: Mind the Gap – how policies can be used to shape the food system to reduce inequity

Date/Time/Location: Thursday, October 20, 11am-12.30pm, Meeting Room 212 & 213

RE-FRESH Presenter:

• Dr Daisy Coyle (12.12pm-12.30pm): “Socio-economic disparities in purchases of ultra-processed foods in Australia: an analysis of a nationally representative household grocery purchasing panel”; Using nationally representative purchasing data, linked with a large nutrition composition database, this study explored the purchase of ultra-processed foods by socio-economic status and change in purchase amounts over a five-year period.

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Cross-cutting symposium:  The future in personalised management of obesity

Date/Time: Thursday, October 20, 2pm-3.30pm, Plenary 3

RE-FRESH Presenter: RE-FRESH Director Alfred Deakin Prof. Anna Peeters (2pm-2.20pm) (“Equity considerations in precision approaches to health”.

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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21:

 

Session Title: Holding governments to account for action on obesity: Lessons learnt and future directions

Date/Time/Location: Friday, October 21, 8am-9.30am, Plenary 3

RE-FRESH Presenters:

• Boyd Swinburn (8am-8.10am): “Introduction to and update of INFORMAS and the Healthy Food Environment Policy Index (Food-EPI)”; Prof. Swinburn will discuss the International Network for Food and Obesity / Non-communicable Diseases (NCDs) Research, Monitoring and Action Support (INFORMAS), which is a global network working to monitor the level of implementation of policies and actions recommended by the World Health Organization to ensure progress towards improved population nutritional health.
• A/Prof. Gary Sacks (8.25am-8.40am): “Launch of 2022 Obesity Prevention Scorecards for Australian Governments”; A/Prof. Sacks will present the latest evidence of on what Australian Governments are doing to prevent obesity through effective policy action across a range of settings.

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Symposium: The co-creation of initiatives to improve the healthiness of food retail environments

Date/Time/Location: Friday, October 21, 9.40am-10.30am, Meeting room 216

This symposium will overview the CO-creation and evaluation of food environments to Advance Community Health (COACH) framework, developed by RE-FRESH researchers and also includes four presentations that focus on various aspects of co-creation in international settings. This research provides a framework to enhance capacity to co-design contextually relevant healthy food retail interventions with their stakeholders for improved population health. It harnesses adaptive technologies to identify relevant relationships of cause and effect, generate and prioritize actions to improve the healthiness of food retail environments.

The symposia will conclude with a discussion of cross-cutting themes drawn from the presentations.

RE-FRESH researchers: Prof. Cliona Ni Mhurchu, Carmen Vargas, A/Prof. Julie Brimblecombe, Dr Meaghan Christian, Dr Megan Ferguson, Dr Jill Whelen and Prof. Steve Allender, Dr Tara Bolesen-Robinson, Dr Miranda Blake, and Dr Gade Waqa.

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22:

 

Session Title: Food prices and affordability in a disrupted world

Date/Time/Location: Saturday, October 22, 8am-9.30am, Meeting Room 216

RE-FRESH Presenters:

In this session RE-FRESH researchers A/Prof. Kathryn Backholer, Dr Christina Zorbas, Prof. Amanda Lee, and Dr Meron Lewis will cover recent methodological advances in monitoring food price and affordability and how this can be used to advocate for equitable policy action.

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Session Title: EMCR Workshop

Date/Time/Location: Saturday, October 22, 9.45am-10.45am, Meeting Room 216

Includes a panel discussion with a panel of editors to assist with answering questions about publishing and reviewing,  moderated by RE-FRESH’s Dr Tara Boelsen-Robinson.