Healthy School Environments Supporting Healthy and Informed Choices of Food and Beverage: Healthy Food Choice Support Mapping Walk (HFC-mapping walk)

Background

HFC mapping walk uses “community resource mapping walk”, an effective intervention in the promotion of healthy lifestyles through community participation. By using a resource map displaying the in-store and out-store environment of food and beverage premises on GIS, mapping-walk workshops will be conducted with the participation of school children, parents, teachers, and community stakeholders. Participants evaluate environments within 100 meters of the school and share information on the choice of healthy food/ beverage, and food mileage according to ecological footprint. Stakeholders help participants to gain knowledge on the choice of healthy food/ beverage, and food mileage. An electronic HFC map with inputs from the walk will help develop healthier school environments, in addition, to helping individuals for informed choices of healthy food and beverage.

Aims

This project aims to develop an intervention of resource-mapping-walk to facilitate healthy and informed choices of food and beverage (Healthy Food Choice Support Mapping Walk: HFC-mapping walk) by urban school children in the Philippines that considers nutritional (i.e. to prevent childhood obesity) and environmental (i.e. to reduce the ecological footprint of food) goals.

The objectives of this study are (1) to assess school environments and processes towards food consumption by urban children in the Philippines, (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of resource-mapping-walk to facilitate healthy and informed choices of food and beverage (Healthy Food Choice Support Mapping Walk: HFC-mapping walk), and (3) to develop strategies for scaling-up HFC-mapping walk for the better environments around the school.

Project plan

This is a hybrid type II design of implementation research. Before testing the clinical intervention of the HFC-mapping walk, the project will conduct:

1. a stakeholder analysis,

2. reviews of the existing policies, curricula on healthy nutrition, food, and beverage advertisement, food nutrition labeling, and opportunity for planetary health in the Philippines,

3. spatial analysis of food premises and shops around the schools by using geospatial and text data, and

4. evaluation of the process towards food consumption by children and families; their considerations on choice of healthy food; and four components of food security (availability, accessibilities, utilization, and stability), by interviews.

Subsequently, a two-arm cluster randomized controlled trial will be carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of the HFC mapping walks on food choice, consumption, knowledge, and nutritional status of children. After the clinical intervention, strategies for scaling-up HFC-mapping walk for a better environment around the school for children will be developed.

Publications and output

To access publications and other outputs relating to this project, see our publications webpage.

Funding organisations

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