Effekt av tiltak for å fremme et sunnere kosthold og økt fysisk aktivitet, spesielt i grupper med lav sosioøkonomisk status

Abstract

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY. Background. Previously, some Norwegian cause-effect studies of social inequality documenting a social gradient in healthy diet and physical activity and knowledge about interventions offered by the health services have been reported. Among lower socio-economic groups, fewer eat healthy foods than among higher socio-economic groups. There are few effect studies about interventions for helping lower socio-economic groups to eat healthy foods and to be physically active. OBJECTIVE The objectives were to assess the effects of the following interventions: 1) to improve dietary habits among different socio-economic groups, 2) to improve dietary habits in lower socio-economic groups, 3) to increase physical activity among different socioeconomic groups, and 4) to increase physical activity in lower socio-economic groups. METHODS We conducted a systematic literature search in the following electronic databases: Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library, PsychInfo, Cinahl, Social Services Abstracts, Sociological Abstracts, Eric, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences, Social Sciences Citation Index, Social Care Online, C2-SPECTR, SveMed, BiblioMap, Bibsys and Google Scholar until April 2007. Relevance and study quality is appraised according to the Knowledge Centre’s methodological handbook (http://www.kunnskapssenteret.no/filer/K-Handbok-2006.pdf). We included effect studies dealing with improving diet and/or increasing physical activity in groups with low socio-economic status, or a reduction in differences in dietary quality and/or level of physical activity between groups with different socio-economic status. RESULTS A total of five reviews and 14 primary studies are included in this report. We found several studies that reported socio-economic data at the start of the intervention (baseline), but they did not use background variables like income and education to analyze differences between socio-economic groups. We chose to categorize the included studies according to target group for intervention. Target group 1: children Target group 2: visitors in supermarkets Target group 3: immigrants, minority groups Target group 4: population in deprived areas Target group 5: patients and high-risk groups Target group 6: employees, unemployed The documentation does not allow us to conclude about an effect/no effect in any of the target group.