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Aim: To assess adoption of the voluntary National Healthy Food and Drink Policy (NHFDP) and the alignment of individual institutional healthy food and drink policies with the NHFDP., Method: All 20 district health boards (DHBs) and two national government agencies participated. Policies of those organisations that had not fully adopted the NHFDP were assessed across three domains: nutrition standards; promotion of a healthy food and beverages environment; and policy communication, implementation and evaluation. Three weighted domain scores out of 10, and a total score out of 30 were calculated., Results: Nine of the 22 organisations reported adopting the NHFDP in full. Of the remaining 13, six referred to the NHFDP when developing their institutional policy and three were working toward full adoption of the NHFDP. Mean scores (SD) were 8.7 (1.0), 6.1 (2.6) and 3.8 (2.2) for the three domains, and 18.6 (4.8) in total. Most individual institutional policies were not as comprehensive as the NHFDP. However, some contained stricter/additional clauses that would be useful to incorporate into the NHFDP., Conclusion: Since a similar policy analysis in 2018, most DHBs have adopted the NHFDP and/or strengthened their own nutrition policies. Regional inconsistency remains and a uniform mandatory NHFDP should be implemented that incorporates improvements identified in individual institutional policies., Competing Interests: Four authors (Cliona Ni Mhurchu, Magda Rosin, Stephanie Shen and Bruce Kidd) are members of The National DHB Food and Drink Environments Network. The Network had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. All other authors declare they have no conflict of interests., (© PMA.)

Aim: The primary objective of this study was to determine the effect of a mobile health (mHealth) intervention on the wellbeing of Pasifika peoples, and to explore factors associated with Pasifika wellbeing., Methods: The OL@-OR@ mHealth programme was a co-designed smartphone app. Culturally relevant data was collected to examine holistic health and wellbeing status, at baseline, and at 12 weeks (end of the trial). The concept of wellbeing was examined as part of a two-arm, cluster randomised trial, using only the Pasifika data: 389 (of 726) Pasifika adults were randomised to receive the mHealth intervention, while 405 (of 725) Pasifika adults were randomised to receive a control version of the intervention. Culturally relevant data was collected to examine holistic health and wellbeing status, at baseline, and at 12 weeks (end of the trial). The intervention effects and the association of demographic and behavioural relationships with wellbeing, was examined using logistic regression analyses., Results: Relative to baseline, there were significant differences between the intervention and control groups for the 'family/community' wellbeing, at the end of the 12-week trial. There were no significant differences observed for all other wellbeing domains for both groups. Based on our multivariate regression analyses, education and acculturation (assimilation and marginalisation) were identified as positively strong factors associated to Pasifika 'family and community' wellbeing., Conclusion: Our study provides new insights on how Pasifika peoples' characteristics and behaviours align to wellbeing. Our findings point to 'family and community' as being the most important wellbeing factor for Pasifika peoples., Competing Interests: Nil.

Aims: This study explored children's awareness of and engagement with food marketing, and their views on action to address it., Methods: A purposeful sample of 33 children (11-13 years) from the Wellington region of New Zealand were interviewed., Results: Children were knowledgeable about food marketing, although most were not aware of the extent to which they were exposed. Children did not distinguish 'marketing to children' from other marketing. According to the children, they were frequently exposed to food marketing, and persuaded, against their better judgement, to purchase food they knew to be harmful to their health. As many children recognised the unhealthy nature of the food marketed to them, they agreed they would take action to reduce junk food marketing if they were Prime Minister for a day. Interventions included making food marketing honest, providing nutrition information, removing billboards and increasing the promotion of healthy food., Conclusions: These findings suggest children's exposure to junk food marketing may cause them physical, mental and moral harm, in direct contradiction of the New Zealand self-regulatory code for marketing. The children's views align with the World Health Assembly's recent decision to endorse initiatives to end childhood obesity, including restricting marketing of unhealthy foods., Competing Interests: Dr Ni Mhurchu and Dr Chambers report grants from Health Research Council of New Zealand during the conduct of the study.

Reducing the exposure of children and young people to the marketing of unhealthy foods is a core strategy for reducing the high overweight and obesity prevalence in this population. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has recently reviewed its self-regulatory codes and proposed a revised single code on advertising to children. This article evaluates the proposed code against eight criteria for an effective code, which were included in a submission to the ASA review process from over 70 New Zealand health professors. The evaluation found that the proposed code largely represents no change or uncertain change from the existing codes, and cannot be expected to provide substantial protection for children and young people from the marketing of unhealthy foods. Government regulations will be needed to achieve this important outcome., Competing Interests: Nil.

Aim: Promotion of unhealthy foods and drinks is a significant, modifiable risk factor for child obesity and diet-related non-communicable diseases. We compared three accepted nutrient profiling systems: the Health Star Rating (HSR), the Ministry of Health Food and Beverage Classification System (FBCS) and the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe Nutrient Profiling Model, to identify the best system to protect New Zealand children from exposure to the marketing of unhealthy foods and beverages., Methods: 13,066 packaged foods from the 2014 New Zealand Nutritrack database were classified as 'restricted' or 'not restricted' as per the WHO model; 'everyday/sometimes' or 'occasional' as per the FBCS model; and '<3.5 stars' or '≥3.5 stars' as per the HSR model. The proportion and types of packaged foods that met the criteria for all three systems or none of the systems, and the types of food products classified as 'restricted' under the WHO model but classified as 'everyday/sometimes' (FBCS model) or as having >3.5 stars, were determined., Results: Under any of the three nutrient profiling systems, approximately one-third (29-39%) of New Zealand packaged foods would be permitted to be marketed to children. The WHO Model would permit marketing of 29% of products; the HSR system would permit 36%; and the FBCS system would permit 39%. The WHO Model restricts marketing of unhealthy foods more effectively than the other two systems. The HSR and FBCS systems would permit marketing of a number of food products of concern, particularly high-sugar breakfast cereals, fruit juices and ready meals., Conclusion: The WHO Regional Office for Europe Nutrient Profiling Model should underpin the Advertising Standards Authority revised Children's Code for Advertising Food. The effectiveness of the new Code in reducing New Zealand children's exposure to marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks should be subject to evaluation by an independent body.

Aim: To present preliminary results of the pilot phase of the Freemasons Health Study., Methods: A prospective cohort study, in which determinants of occurrence of stroke and dementia in the elderly will be investigated., Results: The pilot study (n = 507) showed substantial heterogeneity in risk factor levels among participants and suggested outcome rates that would allow a study of 6000 individuals aged 65 years and over to produce statistically reliable results within a few years of follow up. Preliminary results of the pilot study suggest that the demographic (age, sex) and risk factor (namely blood pressure levels and ranges of body mass index) profile of the projected sample of the Freemasons population is similar to that of the general elderly New Zealand population., Conclusions: The pilot study confirmed that the collection of baseline data from the New Zealand Freemasons population and their spouses is feasible, and that the prevalence of major vascular risk factors in the elderly Freemasons population is similar to that of the general New Zealand population of comparable age. In addition to contributing to our understanding of the aetiology of major non-communicable diseases in the elderly, the proposed major study provides a unique opportunity to investigate the determinants of health and requirements for care in an elderly New Zealand population.