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Health and Environment




The Problem

Effective policy interventions for improved human and planetary health must be comprehensive, targeted and evidence-based. However, for a variety of reasons, evidence is often minimal or non-existent. The SALIENT consortium seeks to address this gap for public health researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders by undertaking multi-disciplinary, innovative research of the food system within the UK context. Outputs are expected to inform the promotion of a healthier more sustainable diet. 

The modelling component of SALIENT brings together and evaluates the findings of the different SALIENT food system trials to understand the benefits and consequences that different food system interventions may have on the UK population. 

Research question

What are the health and environmental impacts of different food system interventions, as assessed for (i) three scenarios for each intervention, and (ii) a combination of all trials for the whole UK population?: 

  1. The trial population (e.g. people who eat lunch at selected Compass canteen sites involved in SALIENT); 
  2. All people potentially affected by the trial partner (e.g. all people who eat lunch at a Compass canteen); and  
  3. All people in the UK that interact in the same food environment (e.g. all people who eat lunch in a worksite canteen). 

 

The Approach

For health, we will adapt an established proportional multistate lifetable model (PRIMEtime). Here, business-as-usual scenarios of (current) health trends are compared to scenarios of trends generated by each SALIENT intervention trial. We will assess changes in four pathways from food consumption to inputs for specific metabolic risk factors: body mass index (BMI), blood pressure (BP), total cholesterol (TC) and fibre.  

 

For environment, we will link published information on the environmental impacts of >57,000 UK food products available at retail stores and >100,000 cook at home recipes, with sales data (or consumption or procurement) provided by trial interventions.  

 

For both health and environment, we will assess the benefits and consequences of the SALIENT trials against the current UK baseline (e.g. the current UK food system), for the three scenarios listed above. This approach will provide information on how the trial interventions are likely to impact health and environmental outcomes, the potential synergies and trade-offs between these outcomes, for different target populations. 

Research Outcomes

The outcomes will consider health and environmental impacts of examined interventions, including: 

Health

  • Risk factors (e.g., overweight, obesity) 
  • Cancers 
  • Diabetes 
  • Cardiovascular diseases 
  • Acute diseases 
  • Dental caries 
  • Life expectancy 
  • Quality of life (QALYs) 

Environment

  • Greenhouse gas emissions 
  • Land use 
  • Water use 
  • Eutrophication potential (water pollution) 


Governance

Data sharing agreements will be established between the participating universities, partners and collaborators as required. 


TEAM