Guidance

Recommendations for research

Recommendations for research

The Programme Development Group (PDG) recommends that the following research questions should be addressed. It notes that 'effectiveness' in this context relates not only to the size of the effect, but also to cost effectiveness rapidity and duration of effect. It also takes into account any harmful or negative side effects.

1 Marketing bans in other countries

What has been the impact of marketing bans on foods high in fat, sugar or salt in Norway, Sweden, Romania and Quebec? What lessons can the UK learn?

2 Inequalities and their contribution

How do inequalities contribute to:

  • the consumption of trans fats, poly-unsaturated and mono-unsaturated fats, fresh fruit and vegetables and stanols?

  • variations in physical activity levels among different population groups?

3 Widening health inequalities

CVD prevention aimed at individuals tends to widen health inequalities. Is there any effective way to ameliorate this? Conversely, is there any further empirical evidence that population-wide policy interventions or CVD preventive strategies narrow the inequalities gap?

4 Food taxes and subsidies

What impact would food taxes and subsidies, particularly in relation to salt, saturated fats and fruit and vegetable consumption, have on CVD risk and health inequalities?

5 Natural experiments

Could 'natural' experiments aid understanding of the impact that 'upstream' factors such as the social, economic and physical environment have on the incidence and rates of cardiovascular disease (CVD)? How could CVD modelling be developed in the UK, particularly to examine health inequalities?

6 Regular daily intake of 2.5 g of stanols or sterols

What effect would a regular daily intake of 2.5 g of stanols or sterols have on the incidence of cardiac and stroke events? How can we best evaluate stanols in terms of their acceptability, affordability, effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and impact on health inequalities?

More detail on the gaps in the evidence identified during development of this guidance is provided in appendix D.