ArticleBMJ public health2026
Evaluating the changes in household purchases of foods and drinks high in fat, salt and sugar following Bristol's outdoor advertisement restrictions policy: a quasi-experimental study.
Article in BMJ public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effects of a healthy checkout ordinance on the sale of soft drinks and confectionery in Berkeley, CA, USA: a quasi-experimental study.The Lancet. Public health · 2026Article
- Change in Advertising Exposure of Unhealthy Commodities After the Implementation of an Outdoor Advertising Restrictions Policy in Bristol, UK: A Descriptive Study.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2026Article
- Understanding the implementation, impact and sustainability of Bristol's unhealthy commodity advertising restrictions policy: a qualitative systems-based study of stakeholder perspectives.BMJ public health · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Introduction: In 2021, Bristol (UK) became the first city outside London to introduce a policy restricting advertisements of high fat, salt and sugar (HFSS) products and other unhealthy commodities (alcohol, gambling and payday loans) on council-owned advertisement sites, predominantly bus stops. This research evaluates the impact of this policy on household purchasing of HFSS products specifically. Methods: Take-home purchasing data for food and drink items recorded from October 2020 to May 2023 (74 weeks before and 59 weeks after policy implementation) by 1012 households from Kantar's Worldpanel division were included in the analysis: 217 households from Bristol (intervention) and 795 from Cardiff, Sheffield, Gloucestershire and South Gloucestershire (controls). Controlled interrupted time-series analyses adjusted for confounders were used to estimate the change in average weekly household purchases of energy and nutrients from HFSS products in the post-intervention period (from 1 April 2022) compared with the counterfactual (data from controls and pre-intervention in Bristol). Results: There was no indication of changes in purchasing of HFSS products in Bristol following the policy; mean change in weekly household purchases of energy and nutrients from take-home HFSS products was 897.6 kcal (95% CI -57.7 to 1.853) or 6.1% (95% CI -0.7 to 12.9) for energy, 4.6% (95% CI -2.6 to 11.9) for fat, 6.1% (95% CI -2.9 to 15.0) for sugar and -1.9% (95% CI -17.4 to 13.6) for salt, respectively, compared with the counterfactual. Stratified analyses by household socio-demographics also showed no evidence of changes in energy purchased from HFSS products in Bristol. Conclusions: This study did not observe evidence of changes in purchasing of HFSS products following Bristol's advertising restriction policy. Bristol City Council owns a relatively small part (~30%) of the city's outdoor advertisement estate, so changes in exposure may have been too small to lead to measurable effects. Extending similar policies to cover more outdoor spaces and advertising platforms is probably required to impact purchasing behaviour.
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