Abstract
BackgroundOverweight and obesity prevalence in children is now on the rise in low/middle-income countries, including Guatemala. Fast food consumption is a recognized contributing factor to this rise. Fast food restaurants use health claims, toy giveaways, price incentives and fast service to promote children’s combo meals. This study sought to assess the use of toy giveaways, time to delivery and price incentives as marketing strategies in fast food chain restaurants in Guatemala. In addition, we sought to compare nutritional quality of combo meals with and without health claims.MethodsWe visited one restaurant from each of the 8 major fast food chains in Guatemala and purchased all children’s combo meals to assess the prevalence of toy giveaways, health claims, and difference in delivery time and price between the combo meal and each meal item purchased separately. Each item was then classified as “healthy” or “less healthy” using the UK Nutrition Profile Model. Nutrition information was collected on-site, from the restaurant website, or by calling the customer service phone number.ResultsWe found 114 combo meals, 21 (18.4%) of which were children’s combo meals. Five (24%) had nutrition information, all were classified by our analysis as “less healthy”, and three had a health claim. On average, combo meals were US$1.93 less expensive than purchasing children’s meal items individually (p = 0.01). Time to delivery was 1.44 min faster for combo meals compared to purchasing meal items individually (p = 0.19).ConclusionsChildren’s fast food combo meals in Guatemala were promoted using several marketing strategies that encourage consumption, including offering toy giveaways and price incentives. In addition, nutrition information is lacking in fast food chain restaurants. Public health advocates in Guatemala should consider a comprehensive approach to encourage healthier choices within fast food restaurants including policies that require fruit and vegetable options for meal side dishes, accessible and easy to read nutrition information, and restrict the use of toy giveaways.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40608-016-0136-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
Overweight and obesity prevalence in children is on the rise in low/middle-income countries, including Guatemala
Fast food restaurants use Mazariegos et al BMC Obesity (2016) 3:52 convenient combo meals, price incentives, and prompt delivery as marketing strategies [9]. Most research on these marketing strategies is from high income countries, and is lacking from low/middle-income countries (LMICs) where the obesity epidemic is rapidly spreading
We found six different fast food restaurant chains that offered children’s combo meals with toy giveaways
Summary
Overweight and obesity prevalence in children is on the rise in low/middle-income countries, including Guatemala. Fast food restaurants use health claims, toy giveaways, price incentives and fast service to promote children’s combo meals. This study sought to assess the use of toy giveaways, time to delivery and price incentives as marketing strategies in fast food chain restaurants in Guatemala. Children’s fast food consumption is associated with high energy, sodium, and saturated fat intake [3, 4], and may be a contributing factor to the growing obesity epidemic [5]. To promote consumption and influence food choice, fast food restaurants may use potentially misleading health claims [6] and offer toy giveaways [7, 8]. Fast food restaurants use Mazariegos et al BMC Obesity (2016) 3:52 convenient combo meals, price incentives, and prompt delivery as marketing strategies [9]. Most research on these marketing strategies is from high income countries, and is lacking from low/middle-income countries (LMICs) where the obesity epidemic is rapidly spreading
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