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Reducing sugar intake in South Africa: a multilevel policy analysis of how global and regional diet policy recommendations find expression at country level

High intake of sugar has been recognised as a contributing factor to diet-related overweight and obesity, and as a determinant for non-communicable disease (NCD) emergence in LMICs. In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a guideline giving specific advice on limiting sugar intake in a...

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Main Author: Mccreedy, Nicole
Other Authors: Shung-King Maylene
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Public Health and Family Medicine 2022
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access_status_str Open Access
author Mccreedy, Nicole
author2 Shung-King Maylene
author_browse Mccreedy, Nicole
Shung-King Maylene
author_facet Shung-King Maylene
Mccreedy, Nicole
author_sort Mccreedy, Nicole
collection Thesis
description High intake of sugar has been recognised as a contributing factor to diet-related overweight and obesity, and as a determinant for non-communicable disease (NCD) emergence in LMICs. In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a guideline giving specific advice on limiting sugar intake in adults and children. Policy guidance has also been provided to promote healthy diets and/or restrict unhealthy eating habits at country-level. The study explored the extent to which global policy recommendations and directives on reducing sugar intake to prevent and control NCDs have found expression in policies issued at the Africa region, South African national or sub-national Western Cape provincial level. A systematic policy document review was conducted to identify policies between 2000 and 2020, at different levels of government using search terms related to sugar, sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) and NCDs. NVivo 12 software was used to code and thematically analyse the data. A policy transfer conceptual framework was applied for the policy analysis to assess what ideas were transferred, including why and to what extent transfer occurred. Forty-eight policy documents were included in this review. Most were global or national level policies. It was evident that several global policy ideas on unhealthy diets and reduction of sugar intake had found expression in South African health policies, as well in the education and finance sectors. Global recommendations for effectively tackling unhealthy diets and NCDs are to implement a mix of cost-effective policy options employing a multisectoral approach. Local policy action has followed the explicit guidance from international agencies, and ideas on reducing sugar intake have found expression in sectors outside of health, to a limited extent. Together with the adoption of the sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) health tax, South Africa's experience offers learnings for other LMICs.
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institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:31:47.142Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2022
publishDateRange 2022
publishDateSort 2022
publisher Department of Public Health and Family Medicine
publisherStr Department of Public Health and Family Medicine
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source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/36488 Reducing sugar intake in South Africa: a multilevel policy analysis of how global and regional diet policy recommendations find expression at country level Mccreedy, Nicole Shung-King Maylene public health family medicine High intake of sugar has been recognised as a contributing factor to diet-related overweight and obesity, and as a determinant for non-communicable disease (NCD) emergence in LMICs. In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a guideline giving specific advice on limiting sugar intake in adults and children. Policy guidance has also been provided to promote healthy diets and/or restrict unhealthy eating habits at country-level. The study explored the extent to which global policy recommendations and directives on reducing sugar intake to prevent and control NCDs have found expression in policies issued at the Africa region, South African national or sub-national Western Cape provincial level. A systematic policy document review was conducted to identify policies between 2000 and 2020, at different levels of government using search terms related to sugar, sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) and NCDs. NVivo 12 software was used to code and thematically analyse the data. A policy transfer conceptual framework was applied for the policy analysis to assess what ideas were transferred, including why and to what extent transfer occurred. Forty-eight policy documents were included in this review. Most were global or national level policies. It was evident that several global policy ideas on unhealthy diets and reduction of sugar intake had found expression in South African health policies, as well in the education and finance sectors. Global recommendations for effectively tackling unhealthy diets and NCDs are to implement a mix of cost-effective policy options employing a multisectoral approach. Local policy action has followed the explicit guidance from international agencies, and ideas on reducing sugar intake have found expression in sectors outside of health, to a limited extent. Together with the adoption of the sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) health tax, South Africa's experience offers learnings for other LMICs. 2022-06-21T10:38:33Z 2022-06-21T10:38:33Z 2022 2022-06-21T10:38:11Z Master Thesis Masters MPH http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36488 eng application/pdf Department of Public Health and Family Medicine Faculty of Health Sciences
spellingShingle public health
family medicine
Mccreedy, Nicole
Reducing sugar intake in South Africa: a multilevel policy analysis of how global and regional diet policy recommendations find expression at country level
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Reducing sugar intake in South Africa: a multilevel policy analysis of how global and regional diet policy recommendations find expression at country level
title_full Reducing sugar intake in South Africa: a multilevel policy analysis of how global and regional diet policy recommendations find expression at country level
title_fullStr Reducing sugar intake in South Africa: a multilevel policy analysis of how global and regional diet policy recommendations find expression at country level
title_full_unstemmed Reducing sugar intake in South Africa: a multilevel policy analysis of how global and regional diet policy recommendations find expression at country level
title_short Reducing sugar intake in South Africa: a multilevel policy analysis of how global and regional diet policy recommendations find expression at country level
title_sort reducing sugar intake in south africa a multilevel policy analysis of how global and regional diet policy recommendations find expression at country level
topic public health
family medicine
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/36488
work_keys_str_mv AT mccreedynicole reducingsugarintakeinsouthafricaamultilevelpolicyanalysisofhowglobalandregionaldietpolicyrecommendationsfindexpressionatcountrylevel