A The Kids Research Institute Australia researcher will map every food business and school in Perth to investigate the influence of the food environment – including the location of junk food outlets near schools – on children’s food intake and health.
Dr Gina Trapp’s project is one of 200 across Australia to share in $84 million in early career research funding announced this week by Federal Education Minister Dan Tehan.
The Australian Research Council’s Discovery Early Career Researcher Award scheme is designed to support early career researchers working on projects considered to be in the national interest.
In a unique and innovative project which spans nutrition, public health, geography and urban planning, Dr Trapp will use her grant to map every single school – government, independent, Catholic, primary, secondary and K-12 – and food business in the Perth metropolitan area each year for three years.
“This project aims to be the first in Australia to longitudinally map, measure and monitor the food environment near schools and comprehensively investigate how the proximity of healthy and unhealthy food outlets near schools impacts on children’s eating behaviours,” Dr Trapp said.
“We know that a quarter of Australia’s children are overweight or obese – something which places them at great risk of poor health outcomes throughout life.
“These figures are clearly unacceptable, but if we’re to have any success at reversing them it’s vital that we understand the contributing factors.
“The food environment around children and young people should be one which supports healthy eating, but we know from our previous research that this isn’t always the case.”
Dr Trapp has spent several years studying the junk food environment around schools, including the nature of food advertising in those areas.
A study she led earlier this year found that three-quarters of outdoor food advertising near Perth schools was for junk food and alcohol. Alcohol was the most frequently advertised product, followed by fast food and then sugary drinks. The rate of unhealthy food and alcohol ads was higher within 250m of schools in lower socio-economic areas.
“We want to find out if these trends are similar when it comes to food outlets, identify how disparities in healthy and unhealthy food access impact children’s food intake, and also understand how students, schools and businesses feel about unhealthy food environments near schools,” Dr Trapp said.
“The ultimate goal is to see more health-promoting, equitable food environments in these areas. To that end, we’ll be using our findings to develop a set of policy and practice recommendations for schools, students, parents, planners, retailers and government.”
The project will encompass an estimated 655 schools – 454 primary schools, 107 secondary schools, and 94 K-12 schools.
Once Dr Trapp and her team have mapped food businesses and schools, she will invite a dozen K-12 or secondary schools with the largest variation in food environment to take part in the next stage of the project.
Around 1,000 students will be asked to participate in an online survey about their dietary intake, food purchasing habits, school canteen use, and perceptions of the food environment near their school.
"Embedded within the survey will be a comprehensive measure of dietary intake and an interacting mapping activity where students will locate their home, school and route to school, and select the food outlets they purchase food from, how often, what they purchase, etc,” Dr Trapp said.
“We also plan to do a before and after study to investigate how a new food outlet opening near a school impacts on the eating behaviours of students attending that school.”
The project is expected to commence next year.