ArticleBMC public health2016
Testing the price and affordability of healthy and current (unhealthy) diets and the potential impacts of policy change in Australia.
Article in BMC public health, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 58 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
58 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 112 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing the Cost of Healthy and Unhealthy Diets: A Systematic Review of Methods.Current nutrition reports · 2022Pooled it
- Concerns and priorities of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples regarding food and nutrition: a systematic review of qualitative evidence.International journal for equity in health · 2021Pooled it
- Measuring Rural Food Environments for Local Action in Australia: A Systematic Critical Synthesis Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2019Pooled it
- Costing 'healthy' food baskets in Australia - a systematic review of food price and affordability monitoring tools, protocols and methods.Public health nutrition · 2016Pooled it
- Diet Cost and Affordability in Queensland: A Two-Year Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Article
- Cost and affordability implications of transitioning from current diets to National dietary guidelines and EAT-Lancet recommendations in Argentina: a modelling study.Nutrition journal · 2025Article
- Who Reports Greater Chronic Disease Risk Behaviours? A Closer Look at Sociodemographic Differences Among Australian Adolescents: A Cross-Sectional Analysis.Health promotion journal of Australia : official journal of Australian Association of Health Promotion Professionals · 2025Article
- Adherence to the planetary health diet reduces dietary costs by 21% supporting affordable healthy eating among older adults in Iran.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The cost of healthy eating in two major cities in Ecuador: a comparative analysis.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Sustainability and cost of typical and heart-healthy dietary patterns in Australia.American heart journal plus : cardiology research and practice · 2024Article
- Tunneling, cognitive load and time orientation and their relations with dietary behavior of people experiencing financial scarcity - an AI-assisted scoping review elaborating on scarcity theory.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2024Article
- Do 20-minute neighbourhoods moderate associations between work and commute hours with food consumption?Public health nutrition · 2023Article
- Impact and evaluation of an online culinary nutrition course for health, education and industry professionals to promote vegetable knowledge and consumption.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2023Article
- Developing a Mediterranean Healthy Food Basket and an Updated Australian Healthy Food Basket Modelled on the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating.Nutrients · 2023Article
- Healthy Food Prices Increased More Than the Prices of Unhealthy Options during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Concurrent Challenges to the Food System.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- The Diet Quality of Food-Insecure Australian Adults-A Nationally Representative Cross-Sectional Analysis.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Adherence to Mediterranean Diet in Croatia: Lessons Learned Today for a Brighter Tomorrow.Nutrients · 2022Article
- Lay perceptions of diabetes mellitus and prevention costs and benefits among adults undiagnosed with the condition in Singapore: a qualitative study.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Developing and Piloting a Novel Ranking System to Assess Popular Dietary Patterns and Healthy Eating Principles.Nutrients · 2022Article
- The knowledge, barriers and opportunities to improve nutrition and physical activity amongst young people attending an Australian youth mental health service: a mixed-methods study.BMC health services research · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPrice and affordability of foods are important determinants of health. Targeted food pricing policies may help improve population diets. However, methods producing comparable data to inform relevant policy decisions are lacking in Australia and globally. The objective was to develop and pilot standardised methods to assess the price, relative price and affordability of healthy (recommended) and current (unhealthy) diets and test impacts of a potential policy change.
methodsMethods followed the optimal approach proposed by INFORMAS using recent Australian dietary intake data and guidelines. Draft healthy and current (unhealthy) diet baskets were developed for five household structures. Food prices were collected in stores in a high and low SES location in Brisbane, Australia. Diet prices were calculated and compared with household incomes, and with potential changes to the Australian Taxation System. Wilcoxen-signed rank tests were used to compare differences in price.
resultsThe draft tools and protocols were deemed acceptable at household level, but methods could be refined. All households spend more on current (unhealthy) diets than required to purchase healthy (recommended) diets, with the majority (53-64 %) of the food budget being spent on 'discretionary' choices, including take-away foods and alcohol. A healthy diet presently costs between 20-31 % of disposable income of low income households, but would become unaffordable for these families under proposed changes to expand the GST to apply to all foods in Australia.
conclusionsResults confirmed that diet pricing methods providing meaningful, comparable data to inform potential fiscal and health policy actions can be developed, but draft tools should be refined. Results suggest that healthy diets can be more affordable than current (unhealthy) diets in Australia, but other factors may be as important as price in determining food choices.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.