The Effect of Retail Food Environment Interventions on Dietary Behavior in Postsecondary Education Settings: A...

Postsecondary education institutions, where hundreds of millions of people work and study globally, are a key setting for retail food environment interventions.

We aimed to synthesize the evidence for the effectiveness of retail food environment interventions in improving the healthiness of dietary behavior of students and staff in postsecondary education settings.

Academic databases were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental studies published until August 2023. Studies were eligible if they assessed the impact of a retail food environment intervention on healthiness of dietary behavior (purchases or consumption) in students or staff in postsecondary education settings and targeted one of the following food environment elements: placement, price, product, or promotion. Business-related outcomes (total sales, profit, or revenue) were included as secondary outcomes. Findings were synthesized in narrative form, organized by retail food environment element. Where comparable dietary outcome data were available from ≥10 interventions, findings were pooled using random effects meta-analysis.

Of 10,126 studies initially identified, 55 (76% quasi-experimental) were included, describing 71 separate interventions (n = 49 single-element and n = 22 multi-element). Two-thirds (n = 47, 66%) of interventions (n = 32 single-element and n = 15 multi-element) demonstrated significant improvements in dietary behavior. Single-element interventions targeting placement (n = 1) and price (n = 3) improved dietary behavior. Most (n = 9/10, 90%) interventions targeting product availability or convenience (product element) improved dietary behavior, while n = 19/35 (54%) targeting promotion did. Pooled findings from 12 interventions reporting changes in energy content demonstrated a significant decrease in purchased or consumed energy (-7.9%; 95% confidence interval: -10.3%, -5.6%). Almost all interventions (n = 11/12, 92%) that evaluated the impact on business-related outcomes found either a significant increase or no change following the intervention.

We established encouraging evidence supporting the role of retail food environment interventions in postsecondary education settings to support healthy dietary behaviors of students and staff.

PROSPERO (International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews, URL: https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?RecordID=295836; registration number CRD42022295836).