Kim Raine

• Professor (Full) at University of Alberta

We aimed to evaluate whether food marketing frequency in recreation and sport facilities (RSF) in Canada differed by the presence of food sponsorship policies, food sponsorship agreements, and food service contracts. We conducted a cross-sectional study of 85 RSF using an observational audit using the Food and Beverage Marketing Assessment Tool for...

This study aimed to understand contexts for buying food online with food delivery apps, meal kits, and online grocers in Canada. A total of 34 participants (24% identified as men) between the ages of 16 and 60 were interviewed over the phone. The participants were recruited through personal and professional networks, electronic word of mouth, and p...

Numerous research methodologies have been used to examine food environments. Existing reviews synthesizing food environment measures have examined a limited number of domains or settings and none have specifically targeted Canada. This rapid review aimed to 1) map research methodologies and measures that have been used to assess food environments;...

Objective: This study explored program recipients' and deliverers' experiences and perceived outcomes of accessing or facilitating a grocery gift card (GGC) program from I Can for Kids (iCAN), a community-based program that provides GGC to low-income families with children. Design: This qualitative descriptive study used Freedman et al's framewo...

Objective: Limitations of traditional geospatial measures, like the modified Retail Food Environment Index (mRFEI), are well-documented. In response, we aimed to: 1) extend existing food environment measures by inductively developing sub-categories to increase the granularity of healthy versus less healthy food retailers; 2) establish replicable c...

Background: Adults with low incomes have lower diet quality than their higher income counterparts. In Canada, the British Columbia Farmers' Market Nutrition Coupon Program (FMNCP) provides coupons to low-income households to purchase healthy foods in farmers' markets. Objective: The objective of this study was to examine the impact of the FMNCP...

Background For decades, dominant weight discourses have led to physical, mental, and social health consequences for young women in larger bodies. While ample literature has documented why these discourses are problematic, knowledge is lacking regarding how they are socially organized within institutions, like fashion and media, that young women enc...

Objectives Household food insecurity negatively affects children's diet quality, physical and mental health, and academic performance. I Can for Kids’ (IC4K) grocery gift card (GGC) program provides GGC to low-income households with school-aged children at risk of household food insecurity in Calgary, Canada. This study described program recipients...

Objectives Improving diet quality among low-income populations remains a public health priority. In Canada, the British Columbia (BC) Farmers’ Market Nutrition Coupon Program (FMNCP) aims to improve the diet quality of low-income households by providing coupons to purchase healthy foods from BC farmers’ markets. This randomized controlled trial, co...

Inspired by consciousness-raising practices of North American second-wave feminism, Dorothy Smith developed institutional ethnography (IE) as an alternative to established sociology, which she argued objectified people and their experiences. Instead, IE begins from an embodied standpoint to examine how local phenomena are coordinated to happen by r...

Background Nutrition influencers can reach large segments of the public, regardless of formal training or credentials. Though social media is a popular source of nutrition information, it may not be credible. Furthermore, the perceived credibility of nutrition information may be enhanced through social validation (i.e., popularity of the public fig...

Background Citizen science bears potential to build a comprehensive view of global food environments and create a broader discussion about how to improve them. Despite its potential, citizen science has not been fully utilised in food environment research. Thus, we sought to explore stakeholders’ experiences of the Local Environment Action on Food...

Background The British Columbia Farmers’ Market Nutrition Coupon Program (FMNCP) is a farmers’ market food subsidy program that provides low-income households with coupons valued at $21/week for 16 weeks to purchase healthy foods at participating BCAFM member farmers’ markets. Objective This study aimed to explore changes, differences and similari...

Unhealthy food and beverage availability and sponsorship undermine healthy food practices in sport and recreation. We conducted a focused ethnography with reflexive photo-interviewing to examine parents’ awareness, reactions, and experiences of food and beverage marketing in and around their children’s physical activity in public sport and recreati...

Objective: The Neighbourhood Environments in Waterloo: Patterns of Active Transportation and Health (NEWPATH) study examined built environment influences on travel, physical activity, food consumption, and health. This collaboration between researchers and practitioners in health and transportation planning is the first, to our knowledge, to integ...

Rationale Dominant framing of childhood obesity as a public health burden has increased weight stigma towards young people in larger bodies. However, weight stigma literature is generally limited by its focus on individuals' attitudes and beliefs, overlooking the broader social conditions shaping stigma. Further, few weight stigma studies have been...

Children are exposed to food environments that make nutrient-poor, energy-dense food cheap, readily available and heavily marketed; all conditions with potential negative impacts on diet and health. While the need for programmes and policies that improve the status of food environments is clear, greater public support is needed for governments to a...

Canadian, municipally funded recreation/sport facilities typically have unhealthy food environments. Ontario, unlike some provinces, lacks a voluntary recreation facility nutrition policy. This study assessed the healthfulness of food environments and vending sales in 16 Ontario recreation/sport facilities and, secondarily, compared data from facil...

Objectives The prevalence of household food insecurity increases in the summer when school meals are no longer accessible, which can negatively impact children's health and wellbeing. Summer food programs, such as I Can for Kids (IC4K) in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, aim to reduce food insecurity in low income households with school-aged children duri...

Objectives It is vital for individuals with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) to adhere to a healthy dietary pattern to maintain optimal blood glucose levels and overall health. Increasing costs of healthy foods, however, are a barrier to maintaining healthful dietary patterns, particularly for individuals with T2DM who are experiencing food insecurity. Poor...

Objective The British Columbia Farmers’ Market Nutrition Coupon Program (FMNCP) provides low-income households with coupons valued at $21/week for 16 weeks to purchase healthy foods in farmers’ markets. Our objective was to explore FMNCP participants’ experiences of accessing nutritious foods, and perceived program outcomes. Design This study used...

Nutritional health of children and youth is an increasing cause for concern in Canada. Through food and beverage messaging in multiple environments, young people develop eating behaviours with ramifications throughout their life course. Unhealthy food retailers near schools, recreation facilities, and childcare centres—key activity settings for hea...

As providers of community-based physical activity programs, recreation and sports facilities serve as an important resource for health promotion. Unfortunately, the food environments within these settings often do not reflect healthy eating guidelines. This study sought to describe facilitators and barriers to implementing provincial nutrition guid...

Background: The high cost of many healthy foods poses a significant challenge to the maintenance of optimal blood glucose levels for adults with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) who are experiencing food insecurity, leading to diabetes complications and excess acute care usage and costs. Subsidized healthy food prescription programs may help to reduce food i...

Objective In 2014, a Nutrition Report Card (NRC) was developed as a sustainable, low-cost framework to assess the healthfulness of children’s food environments and highlight action to support healthy eating. We summarise our experiences in producing, disseminating, evaluating and refining an annual NRC in a Canadian province from 2015 to 2019. Des...

Introduction Low-income populations have poorer diet quality and lower psychosocial well-being than their higher-income counterparts. These inequities increase the burden of chronic disease in low-income populations. Farmers’ market subsidies may improve diet quality and psychosocial well-being among low-income populations. In Canada, the British C...

Objective To explore the impact of a capacity-building intervention (CBI) to support implementing provincial nutrition guidelines on food marketing in recreation facilities (RFs). Design Randomized controlled trial within a natural experiment: food marketing in RFs from 3 guideline provinces randomly assigned to intervention (GL+CBI) or comparison...

Canadian provincial governments have introduced voluntary nutrition guidelines for recreation and sport facilities to promote healthy dietary patterns in children. This paper presents baseline data from the Eat, Play, Live (EPL) randomized controlled trial to examine whether facilities in guideline provinces had greater capacity, more nutrition pol...

Objectif Évaluer, dans deux provinces canadiennes, l’appui du grand public et d’influenceurs en matière de politiques vis-à-vis de politiques de lutte contre le tabagisme à l’échelle de la population. Méthodologie En 2016, nous avons mis en oeuvre le sondage Prévention des maladies chroniques auprès d’un échantillon d’influenceurs (n = 302) et d’u...

Objective To assess general public and policy influencer support for population-level tobacco control policies in two Canadian provinces. Methods We implemented the Chronic Disease Prevention Survey in 2016 to a census sample of policy influencers (n = 302) and a random sample of members of the public (n = 2400) in Alberta and Quebec, Canada. Surv...

Objective: Although alcohol consumption is considered a major modifiable risk factor for chronic disease, policies to reduce alcohol-related harm remain low on the Canadian policy agenda. The objective of this study was to understand support for population-level healthy public policies to reduce alcohol-related harm by assessing the attitudes of p...

Purpose of review: This review will present the latest evidence on the impacts of sugar taxes on obesity with a focus on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB). Recent findings: Evidence of direct impacts of SSB taxation policies on obesity prevalence continues to be limited. Natural experiments involving SSB taxation policies implemented in Mexico and...

Nearly two-thirds of all deaths worldwide are from non-communicable chronic diseases, with a similar proportion in Canada. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study, unhealthy eating is the leading risk for death and the second leading risk for disability in Canada. It is clear that to adequately address this major health issue, we need a com...

Background: This study evaluated the relationship between enrolment in a school-based oral health prevention program (SOHP) and: 1) children's dental health status and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL), and 2) mothers' oral health (OH) knowledge, attitude, practice, and OHRQoL. Methods: This cross-sectional study, in the Kuwait Capita...

The authors wish to make a correction to the published version of their paper [...]

This study explored the influence of healthy vending contracts (HVC) on the nutritional quality of vending machine products in 46 Canadian publicly funded recreation and sport facilities. A quasi-experimental comparison design was used to examine the difference in nutritional quality of snack and beverage vending machine products at baseline (Decem...

Background: Attitudes and beliefs of policy influencers and the general public toward physical activity policy may support or impede population-level action, requiring improved understanding of aggregate preferences toward policies that promote physical activity. Methods: In 2016, the Chronic Disease Prevention Survey was administered to a censu...

Obesity is a stigmatized disease due to pervasive personal, professional, institutional, and cultural weight bias. Individuals with obesity experience weight bias across their lifespan and settings, which can affect their life chances and significantly impact health and social outcomes. The objectives of this study were to: (a) explore weight bias...

Background: Recreation and sport facilities often have unhealthy food environments that may promote unhealthy dietary patterns among children. In response, some Canadian provinces have released voluntary nutrition guidelines for recreation and sport facilities, however implementation has been limited. Organizational capacity building may overcome...

Objective To assess and compare the favourability of healthy public policy options to promote healthy eating from the perspective of members of the general public and policy influencers in two Canadian provinces. Design The Chronic Disease Prevention Survey, administered in 2016, required participants to rank their level of support for different e...

Purpose: To evaluate whether interpretive "health" labels placed in vending machines in recreation centres represented products' nutrient content when compared with provincial nutrition guidelines. Methods: A cross-sectional audit (November 2015 - April 2016) of 139 vending machines in recreation facilities found 525 foods and beverages in 17 ma...

Introduction L’absence d’interventions en matière de recherche, de pratiques et de politiques relativement à l’activité physique et les particularités de l’environnement physique (bâti et naturel) en milieu rural ou éloigné et dans les régions du Nord constituent des freins importants à l’équité en santé de la population au Canada. Cet article prés...

Introduction The lack of policy, practice and research action on physical activity and features of the physical (built and natural) environments in rural, remote and northern settings is a significant threat to population health equity in Canada. This paper presents a synthesis of current evidence on the promotion of physical activity in non-urban...

Since 2009, the Alberta Policy Coalition for Chronic Disease Prevention (APCCP) has pursued policy, systems, and environmental change strategies engaging policy elites to promote healthy public policy for chronic disease prevention in Alberta, Canada. Employing Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) vocabulary to facilitate our analysis, we examined wh...

Background: Many socioecological and structural factors affect women's diets, physical activity, and her access and receptivity to perinatal care. We sought to explore women's and providers' perceptions and experiences of health in the pre- and post-natal period while facing difficult life circumstances, and accessing a community-based program par...

With increasing childhood obesity rates and type 2 diabetes developing in younger age groups, many schools have initiated policies to support healthy eating and active living. Policy interventions can influence not only health behaviours in students but can also impact these behaviours beyond the school walls into the community. We articulate a pol...

Health in all policies can address chronic disease morbidity and mortality by increasing population-level physical activity and healthy eating, and reducing tobacco and alcohol use. Both governmental and nongovernmental policy influencers are instrumental for health policy that modifies political, economic, and social environments. Policy influence...

Abstract Background Children’s recreational sport settings typically sell energy dense, low nutrient products; however, it is unknown whether the same types of food and beverages are also marketed in these settings. Understanding food marketing in sports settings is important because the food industry often uses the promotion of physical activity t...

Background: Current methods for evaluating food marketing to children often study a single marketing channel or approach. As the World Health Organization urges the removal of unhealthy food marketing in children's settings, methods that comprehensively explore the exposure and power of food marketing within a setting from multiple marketing chann...

Objectives: Many countries, including Canada, are considering nutrition policies that seek to improve dietary behaviour and related health outcomes. The current study examined support for policy measures among youth and young adults in Canada. Methods: Participants aged 16-30 years were recruited for online surveys using in-person intercept samp...

The WAVES study, a large randomized controlled trial of school-based childhood obesity prevention, recently reported disappointing outcomes. However, considering the environmental assaults that challenge children’s abilities to eat, play and move for health, it is unrealistic to expect education programmes alone to create the systems-level change n...

p> SETTING: Municipal buildings and corporate events in the City of Hamilton, Ontario. INTERVENTION: In 2011, the City of Hamilton adopted a healthy food and beverage policy. The intent of the policy is to demonstrate the City’s commitment to healthy eating by providing food and beverages that are healthy, safe, and free of industrially produced t...

p> OBJECTIVES: Public health policies have been criticized for promoting a simplistic narrative that may contribute to weight bias. Weight bias can impact population health by increasing morbidity and mortality. The objectives of this study were to: 1) critically analyze Canadian obesity prevention policies and strategies to identify underlying dom...

Background Healthy public policy is an important tool for creating environments that support human health and wellbeing. At the local level, municipal policies, such as zoning bylaws, provide an opportunity for governments to regulate building location and the type of services offered. Across North America, there has been a recent proliferation of...

Introduction Les aliments malsains sont facilement accessibles dans les lieux publics au Canada, ce qui favorise les maladies chroniques liées au régime alimentaire, comme l’obésité. Cette réalité est préoccupante, car les établissements publics servent souvent une grande quantité d’aliments destinés à des groupes vulnérables, tels que les enfants...

Introduction Unhealthy foods are widely available in public settings across Canada, contributing to diet-related chronic diseases, such as obesity. This is a concern given that public facilities often provide a significant amount of food for consumption by vulnerable groups, including children and seniors. Healthy food procurement policies, which s...

p>Greater availability of low nutritional quality foods and decreased consumption of nutrient-dense foods have negatively impacted the nutrient profile of the Canadian diet. Poor diet is now the leading risk factor for chronic disease and premature death in Canada. To help consumers choose healthful foods, nutrition labelling is one policy tool for...

It is important to consider health inequities when exploring the extent to which school food programs may contribute to the stigmatization and social exclusion of families experiencing food insecurity. As part of a broader school-based project, this paper considers evidence derived from a secondary analysis of research in Nova Scotia (NS). In the o...

p>This consensus statement reflects the views of a diverse group of stakeholders convened to explore the concept of “food literacy” as it relates to children’s health. Evidence-based conceptions of food literacy are needed in light of the term’s popularity in health promotion and educational interventions designed to increase food skills and knowle...

p> OBJECTIVES: The role of socio-economic status (SES) in fruit juice and fruit drink consumption is not well understood in a Canadian context. This study examines the relationship between SES and Canadian fruit juice and fruit drink consumption. METHODS: The Canadian Community Health Survey (2011–2012), a cross-sectional survey that employs multi...

This review synthesized evidence from controlled studies pertaining to the impact of targeted policies on anthropometric, dietary and physical activity outcomes amongst socioeconomically disadvantaged children and adults. Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses-Equity guidelines were followed. Eligible studies were publis...

Introduction: Overweight and obesity are influenced by a complex interplay of individual and environmental factors that affect physical activity and healthy eating. Nevertheless, little has been reported on people's perceptions of those factors. Addressing this critical gap and community partner needs, this study explored how people perceived the...

Introduction Overweight and obesity are influenced by a complex interplay of individual and environmental factors that affect physical activity and healthy eating. Nevertheless, little has been reported on people’s perceptions of those factors. Addressing this critical gap and community partner needs, this study explored how people perceived the in...

Introduction Le surpoids et l’obésité dépendent de l’interaction complexe entre facteurs liés à l’indivu et facteurs liés à l’environnement ayant une influence sur l’activité physique et une alimentation saine. Il existe pourtant peu d’information sur les perceptions des individus à l’égard de ces facteurs. Afin de combler cette lacune importante e...

This systematic review examined the impact of universal policies on socioeconomic inequities in obesity, dietary and physical activity behaviours among adults and children. PRISMA-Equity guidelines were followed. Database searches spanned from 2004 to August 2015. Eligible studies assessed the impact of universal policies on anthropometric, dietary...

To achieve food security in Canada, comprehensive approaches are required, which involve action at the public policy level. This qualitative study explored the experiences of 14 stakeholders engaging in a 9-month participatory public policy advocacy project to promote community food security in the province of Alberta through the initiation of a ca...

Abstract Background Healthy Alberta Communities (HAC) was a 3-year community-based intervention to reduce lifestyle-related risk factors for chronic disease and obesity at a population-level. The current paper examines changes in blood pressure (BP) and anthropometric indicators within HAC communities compared to secular trends. Methods Between 200...

Objective: The present study aimed to: (i) examine associations between food store patronage and diet and weight-related outcomes; and (ii) explore consumer motivations for visiting different types of food store. Design: A stratified probability sample of residents completed household and individual-level surveys in 2009/2010 on food purchasing...

Background This study’s objectives were to investigate the prevalence of self-reported knee and hip osteoarthritis (OA) stratified by age and sex and to examine the association of modifiable factors with knee and hip OA prevalence. The study was conducted using randomly sampled data gathered from four communities in the province of Alberta, Canada....

Acculturation has been associated with decreased physical activity among immigrants. This study assessed the process of changing physical activity patterns within the context of Latin American immigrant women’s migration experiences to Canada. Using the ecological model of health promotion, we applied a mixed methods research design. Thirty-six Lat...

Despite well-documented evidence implicating physical activity (PA) in the prevention of type 2 diabetes, the overwhelming majority of individuals with prediabetes are not physically active enough. The purpose of this study was to investigate the applicability of the social cognitive theory (SCT) in understanding PA behaviour in individuals with pr...

To assess the impact of children's dental health status (DHS) on their oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL). Participants were 11- and 12-year-old children attending public schools in the Kuwait Capital Region. Children's DHS was evaluated by clinical examinations and presented using decayed, missed, filled teeth/surface (DMFT/dmft, DMFS/dm...

Many recreation and sports facilities have unhealthy food environments, however managers are reluctant to offer healthier foods because they perceive patrons will not purchase them. Preliminary evidence indicates that traffic light labeling (TLL) can increase purchase of healthy foods in away-from-home food retail settings. We examined the effectiv...

Few children meet physical activity (PA) recommendations, and are therefore at increased risk for overweight/obesity and adverse health outcomes. To increase children's opportunities for PA, several Canadian provinces have adopted school-based daily PA (DPA) policies. It is not clear why some jurisdictions have adopted DPA policies, and others have...

Indigenous First Nations people in Canada have high chronic disease morbidity resulting in part from enduring social inequities and colonialism. Obesity prevention strategies developed by and for First Nations people are crucial to improving the health status of this group. The research objective was to develop community-relevant strategies to addr...

Background: Community sports settings are often sources of unhealthy foods for children. Many managers in these settings are reluctant to increase availability of healthy food options because they perceive that healthy foods are not profitable. This study assessed the independent contribution of increased availability of healthy foods to their sal...

To assess what health promotion policies and practices were adopted by schools in Nova Scotia and the extent that these policies and practices affected the diet quality, physical activity (PA) and weight status of students. We developed and administered a 'school practice assessment tool' to assess the presence of 72 different school-based health p...

Mandatory presurgical, behavior-induced weight loss, although not standard, is a relatively common practice among bariatric surgical clinics. We explore the patient’s experience of this practice using phenomenology. We gathered experiential accounts from 7 individuals waiting to have the procedure at a large publically funded clinic in western Cana...

BACKGROUND : Few children meet physical activity (PA) recommendations, and are therefore at increased risk for overweight/obesity and adverse health outcomes. To increase children's opportunities for PA, several Canadian provinces have adopted school-based daily PA (DPA) policies. It is not clear why some jurisdictions have adopted DPA policies, an...

Background Food banks have emerged in response to growing food insecurity among low-income groups in many affluent nations, but their ability to manage this problem is questionable. In Canada, in the absence of public programs and policy interventions, food banks are the only source of immediate assistance for households struggling to meet food nee...

Objective: The purpose of the Report Card on Healthy Food Environments and Nutrition for Children is to assess how current environments and policies in Canada support or create barriers to improving children's dietary behaviours and body weights. Method: In 2014 we reviewed the literature to identify indicators of the quality of children's food...

Purpose: The knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs of key policy influencers and the general public can support or hinder the development of public policies that support cancer prevention. To address gaps in knowledge concerning healthy public policy development, views on cancer causation and endorsement of policy alternatives for cancer prevention am...

This study examines associations between local food purchasing and diet-related outcomes. A population-based sample of 2228 households containing 4902 individuals completed surveys. Multilevel linear regressions determined the extent to which purchasing foods from farmers’ markets and community-supported agricultural (CSA) groups predicted individu...

Improving the nutritional health of the public continues to be a major challenge. Our mission of advancing health through food and nutrition has become increasingly complex, particularly as food environments shape the availability, affordability, and social acceptability of food and nutrition "choices". Promoting nutritional health requires that di...

The purpose of this study was to explore the implementation of the Ontario School Food and Beverage Policy (P/PM 150) from the perspective of secondary-school students. This research, informed by the ANGELO framework, undertook three focus groups with secondary students (n = 20) in 2 school boards representing both high- and low-income neighbourhoo...