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“Competitive” Food and Beverage Laws and Obesity Among Diverse Youth in California High Schools
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

“Competitive” Food and Beverage Laws and Obesity Among Diverse Youth in California High Schools

Emma V. Sanchez-Vaznaugh, Mika Matsuzaki, Kelsey Alexovitz, Maria Elena Acosta and Brisa N. Sánchez
Journal of adolescent health, v 76(2), pp 323-331
01 Feb 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2024.09.006
PMID: 39425719
url
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2024.09.006View
Published, Version of Record (VoR)CC BY-NC-ND V4.0,  Open

Abstract

Competitive food and beverages Disparities High-schools Neighborhood income Nutrition laws Race and ethnicity Obesity
To investigate associations between the California “competitive” food and beverage (CF&B) laws and overweight/obesity (OV/OB) among high school youth by gender, school-neighborhood income, and race/ethnicity, and to examine racial/ethnic OV/OB disparities before and after CF&B policies. Using an interrupted time series design paired with retrospective cross-sectional Fitnessgram data from 3,565,260 youth-level records on ninth-grade students in California public schools, we estimated gender, school-neighborhood income, and racial/ethnic OV/OB prevalence trends before (2002-2007) and after the CF&B policies were in effect (2008-2012). In the period before the CF&B policies, OV/OB prevalence increased annually among the majority of subgroups regardless of gender, school-neighborhood income and race/ethnicity. In the period after the policies took place, OV/OB increased at a slower rate, plateaued or declined. Changes in log odds of OV/OB trends ranged from −0.03 to −0.07. In the period before the CF&B policies, OV/OB disparities widened between African American and Latino versus White males within each school-neighborhood income tertile; afterwards, disparities ceased to increase or slightly narrowed. The California CF&B laws for high schools are associated with favorable trends in youth OV/OB. This is the first study to examine these associations among multiple socio-demographically diverse high school youth simultaneously considering gender, school-neighborhood income and race/ethnicity. The degree to which observed changes in OV/OB trends are attributable to CF&B policies is unclear. Nevertheless, the results suggest that strengthening CF&B policies may help further reduce OV/OB among youth of different genders and ethnicities in schools across neighborhoods of varying income levels.

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Pediatrics
Psychology, Developmental
Public, Environmental & Occupational Health
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