Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul:70:102600.
doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2021.102600. Epub 2021 Jun 9.

The impact of school exclusion zone planning guidance on the number and type of food outlets in an English local authority: A longitudinal analysis

Heather Brown  1 , Scott Kirkman  2 , Viviana Albani  3 , Louis Goffe  4 , Nasima Akhter  5 , Bruce Hollingsworth  6 , Stephanie von Hinke  7 , Amelia Lake  8
Affiliations

The impact of school exclusion zone planning guidance on the number and type of food outlets in an English local authority: A longitudinal analysis

Heather Brown et al. Health Place. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

The use of planning policy to manage and create a healthy food environment has become a popular policy tool for local governments in England. To date there has been no evaluation of their short-term impact on the built environment. We assess if planning guidance restricting new fast food outlets within 400 m of a secondary school, influences the food environment in the local authority of Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. We have administrative data on all food outlets in Newcastle 3 years pre-intervention 2012-2015, the intervention year 2016, and three years' post-intervention 2016-2019. We employ a difference-in-difference approach comparing postcodes within the school fast food outlet exclusion zone to those outside the fast-food exclusion zones. In the short term (3 years), planning guidance to limit the number of new fast-food outlets in a school exclusion zone did not have a statistically significant impact on the food environment when compared with a control zone.

Keywords: Difference-in-difference; Evaluation; Food environment; Planning guidance; UK.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

“All authors have completed the Unified Competing Interest form (available on request from the corresponding author) and declare: no support from any organisation for the submitted work; no financial relationships with any organisations that might have an interest in the submitted work in the previous three years, no other relationships or activities that could appear to have influenced the submitted work.”

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Map of the school exclusion zones in Newcastle upon Tyne, England Note: The red polygons show the exclusion zones around secondary schools in Newcastle Upon Tyne, whilst the distance between the blue circles along the top line indicate 1 km.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Location of restaurants and fast-food outlets in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Green: control zone; Red: exclusion zone over the period 2012–2015.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Number of new fast-food/sandwich shop or restaurant/café/canteen in the control and exclusion zones. Policy introduction marked by red vertical line.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Number of new food outlets within Exclusion zone postcodes in Newcastle Upon Tyne after the implementation of planning guidance in October 2016. Note: The legend is truncated. The complete classification of outlet type is: Restaurant/Café/Canteen; Retail; School/College/Universities; Supermarkets; Distributors/Transporters; Hospital/Childcare/Caring; Manufacturing/Packing; Mobile Caterer; Fast-Food/Sandwich shops; Import/Export; Hotel/B&B/Guest House; Other Catering; Pub/Night Club/Bar.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Change in number of existing food outlets within Exclusion zone postcodes in Newcastle Upon Tyne after the implementation of planning guidance in October 2016 Note: The legend is truncated. The complete classification of outlet type is: Restaurant/Café/Canteen; Retail; School/College/Universities; Supermarkets; Distributors/Transporters; Hospital/Childcare/Caring; Manufacturing/Packing; Mobile Caterer; Fast-Food/Sandwich shops; Import/Export; Hotel/B&B/Guest House; Other Catering; Pub/Night Club/Bar.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Burns C., Jackson M., Gibbons C., Stoney R.M. Foods prepared outside the home: association with selected nutrients and body mass index in adult Australians. Publ. Health Nutr. 2002;5(3):441–448. - PubMed
    1. Center for Disease Control Healthy food environment. 2021. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/strategies/healthy-food-env.html Available from. Accessed October 2020.
    1. Chang M., Green L., Cummins S. All change. Has COVID-19 transformed the way we need to plan for a healthier and more equitable food environment? Urban Des. Int. 2020:1–5.
    1. Currie J., DellaVigna S., Moretti E., Pathania V. The effect of fast food restaurants on obesity and weight gain. Am. Econ. J. Econ. Pol. 2010;2(3):32–63.
    1. Department of Health Public health in local government. 2011. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploa... Available from. Accessed October 2020.

Publication types