An Evaluation of Food Environments in Saskatchewan Public Recreation Facilities

Abstract

The impact of food environments (FEs) on eating behaviours is gaining recognition as the health of our population continues to deteriorate. Food environments in public recreation facilities (PRFs) have been of particular interest as they are a preferred gathering place in communities for families. Although FEs in PRFs have been studied in other Canadian provinces for over a decade, this study was the first of its kind in Saskatchewan (SK). A convergent/parallel mixed methods study design used quantitative methods to determine the healthfulness of FEs and qualitative methods to examine barriers, facilitators and future opportunities. Results were organized and converged using a socio-ecological framework.

Similar to other provinces, results indicated that concession and vending services in SK PRFs are mostly unhealthy and unsupportive of health. This contradicts the national recreation priority to have Supportive Environments where healthy choices are the easy choices. Barriers far exceeded facilitators for healthy eating, resulting in a current state that is difficult to change even though there appears to be organizational readiness. Key barriers included a lack of guidelines, resources, capacity, funding, incentives and direction, a lack of healthy options and promotion of healthy options, a lack of infrastructure to store or prepare healthy options, a lack of consumer readiness and economic risk. Several future opportunities emerged some of which included the need for policy, nutrition guidance, strategy, direction, stakeholder engagement, knowledge exchange platforms, increased availability and promotion of healthy options, decreased availability and promotion of unhealthy options, infrastructure to store and prepare healthy options and incentives.

A participatory action research approach engaged practitioners and policy makers from health and recreation sectors at a provincial advisory level to design our study, as well as, recreation leaders and food service providers at a facility level to participate in our study. This approach increased awareness and capacity to address concerns related to unhealthy FEs in SK PRFs. The role of the provincial advisory committee goes beyond the life of this study; it will continue to support, monitor and re-evaluate changes to FEs in SK PRFs.