Nutrition Policy Decreases Sugar-Sweetened Beverages in Municipal Parks: Lessons Learned From Carson, California

Abstract

In light of the childhood obesity epidemic, many cities are adopting healthy park vending policies, but the evidence on the effectiveness of these policies is scant. This study examines how implementation of a healthy vending policy in Carson, California, changes the types of beverages that are available in park vending machines. The study design is a pre-posttest with post-only comparison group. The main outcome is proportion of beverages in vending machines that is consistent with caloric and sugar content guidelines for children as defined by the Nutrition Environment Measures-Vending (NEMS-V) tool. This study finds that prior to implementation of the vending policy, 70% of the beverages did not meet NEMS-V guidelines, on average. After implementation of the vending policy, this number declined to 7%. This study suggests that healthy vending policies can have an impact on the types of beverages that are available in city parks.