Australian hospital healthy retail policies - an analysis and scoping review of potential impacts on dietary behaviours.

Objectives: This study analyses Australian healthy hospital retail policies to identify the similarities and differences in the policies and policy implementation processes across jurisdictions and to examine the potential impact of different policy components on dietary behaviours. Study type: Policy analysis and scoping review. Methods: Healthy retail policy documents and policy implementation guidelines for public healthcare facilities were identified via a grey literature search of health department websites in all Australian jurisdictions. Policy components and policy implementation processes were extracted and analysed for similarities and differences. The potential effectiveness of the different policy components on purchasing and/or dietary behaviours was identified via a scoping review of the academic literature, conducted in March 2023 across seven electronic databases and Google Scholar. The scoping review included studies reporting the impacts of healthy food retail interventions implemented in hospitals. No timeframe restriction was applied for either the grey literature search or the scoping review. Results: All Australian state and territory jurisdictions except the state of Tasmania have implemented jurisdiction-specific healthy retail policies in public hospital settings. There are similarities and differences in the policy components and implementation design across jurisdictions. Similarities include the policy scope, the use of a traffic-light system to classify the nutritional healthiness of food and beverages for sale, and the standards used to determine the mix of healthy and unhealthy food availability. These similarities allowed the sharing of resources across some jurisdictions. There is limited evaluation of policy impacts on purchase and/or consumption behaviours. Twenty of 27 studies identified via the scoping literature review examined interventions similar to the Australian policies and showed that these policies could result in increased purchase of healthier products among hospital staff and visitors. Key implementation success factors include strong support for the policy from all stakeholders, practical implementation support resources, and impacts on retailer profitability. Conclusions: The healthy hospital retail policies implemented across Australian jurisdictions could encourage healthier food and beverage purchases among staff and visitors. Evaluation of the policies could facilitate further refinement to enhance the effectiveness of the policies and translation of learnings to international contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]