Health promotion international
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Overweight and obesity in children is rising at the global level, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Among the causes for this increase is the marketing of unhealthy food and beverage products, which affects children's food preferences, purchasing requests and consumption patterns. The need to address harmful marketing to children has been recognized at the World Health Organization, with Member States having agreed in 2010 to implement a set of recommendations to restrict such practices. ⋯ Four relevant themes were identified in existing human rights instruments: (i) the best interest of the child should be considered above all other interests; (ii) the rights to health and adequate food cannot be realized without supportive healthy environments; (iii) children should be protected from economic exploitation; and (iv) the persuasive marketing of unhealthy food and beverage products is explicitly recognized as a threat to the rights to food and health. In conclusion, existing human rights instruments could be harnessed to advance public health measures to restrict the marketing of unhealthy food and beverage products to children. Policy-makers and advocates should draw from these instruments and refer to State's obligations within international and domestic human rights law to strengthen their efforts to restrict harmful marketing practices to children.
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Both living and working environments have a substantial influence on promoting healthy living habits. A holistic and accurate assessment of the community health-promoting practices is important to identify gaps and to make continuous, tangible improvements. The aim of the study is to assess the prevalence of the Singapore community health-promoting practices. ⋯ The health-promoting practices for the other domains were graded 'D' (<50%) except for healthy behaviour (physical activity) sub-domain which achieved grade 'B' (65%). Significant gaps were identified in the community health-promoting practices. The residential zones may benefit from the scoring system to identify gaps and prioritize high-impact strategies to improve their health practices.