A Scoping Review of Nudges for Healthier Eating and their Applicability in Developing Asia

Abstract

‘Nudges’ are considered a subtle tool to influence human behavior without restricting their choices. It is gaining attention in public policies and the healthcare domain to help people adopt positive changes for better healthcare outcomes. This paper undertakes a scoping review of literature to understand the effectiveness of nudges in choosing healthier food among people that have long-term implications towards lower incidence of medical conditions and healthier lifestyles. It digs deeper into techniques of nudges to identify the most effective ones and also identify the ones that could be used in developing Asian countries. The paper concludes that there is a greater proportion of studies that emphasize the positive relation between nudges and positive human behavior towards healthier eating, though these are mostly conducted in developed countries. The Visual nudge technique is the most used in the reviewed studies. For Asia, labeling and positioning nudges are appropriate nudges as they do not entail many additional costs to governments and institutions.