Creating healthy and supportive food environments – investigating the type, location and density of food outlets on the island of Ireland

Description

The food environment in which we live impacts what we eat - where we live, work, shop and learn - can affect the food we eat and how healthy we are. Obesity policies on the island of Ireland recognise the need for food environments that support and enable people to access healthy and nutritious diets (Department of Health 2016, Department of Health 2012). There is a clear need to make data on the physical food environment available to people, planners and policy makers in a way that is accessible and relatable. This research is being commissioned to: • Develop a robust and valid method to capture and visualise data on food outlets on the island of Ireland, using the WHO definition and examples2 (World Health Organisation 2022). • Relate food outlet data to aspects of the food environment such as area socio economic status data, food outlet location data, school location data, urban/rural location data. The primary goal of this research is to generate data on the type, density and location of food outlets on the island of Ireland. The data should also be made available in a visual format. This can involve a sampling methodology but should generate an appropriately representative data set on the island to ensure validity and robustness.