Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32524925›Full record

ArticlePublic health nutrition2020

Food and beverage advertising in Hong Kong mass transit railway stations.

Steven Ka Ho Lo, Billy Yin Sing O, Jimmy Chun Yu Louie

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Public health nutrition, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors.

Steven Ka Ho LoDiscipline of Food and Nutritional Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR.
Billy Yin Sing ODiscipline of Food and Nutritional Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR.
Jimmy Chun Yu LouieDiscipline of Food and Nutritional Sciences, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR.ORCID 0000-0001-7736-605X

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

objectivesTo examine the extent and characteristics of food and beverage (F&B) promotion in Hong Kong mass transit railway (MTR) stations in districts with different socioeconomic statuses (SES) and school density.

designAll advertisements located in the eight selected MTR stations were recorded by photographs or videos, and classified into F&B and non-F&B. The percentage of F&B advertisements and unhealthy F&B being promoted, and common persuasive marketing strategies used in F&B advertisements were compared between low v. high SES districts and school zones v. non-school zones.

settingMTR stations in Hong Kong.

participantsNot applicable.

resultsOf the 8064 advertisements documented, 861 (10·7 %) were F&B advertisements, promoting 1860 F&B items. More than half of the these were unhealthy foods. Stations in high SES districts or school zones tend to advertise more unhealthy items (high v. low SES: 55·8 v. 50·8 %, P = 0·049; school v. non-school: 60·8 v. 49·3 %, P < 0·001). More than one-third of the F&B advertisements recorded did not utilise any of those persuasive marketing techniques that were examined, and using models (13·9 %) or providing discounts (8·8 %) were the two most frequently used non-festival-related persuasive marketing strategies.

conclusionsUnhealthy F&B advertising in MTR stations is prevalent regardless of SES and school density, and persuasive marketing strategies were infrequently used. These suggest that a ban on unhealthy F&B advertising around schools or the use of persuasive marketing strategies alone would be ineffective in Hong Kong. To align with the recommendation from WHO, a universal ban of junk food advertising should be enacted.

Indexed as

AdvertisingBeveragesFoodHong KongHumansMarketingRailroadsFood promotionHong KongMass transit railway station

Identifiers

PMID32524925
PMCPMC10200667

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.