管理学校周边新建快餐店——对英格兰35个城市区域公共卫生规划干预措施的评估

Managing New Fast-food Outlets Around Schools:An Evaluation of a Public Health Planning Intervention in 35 Urban Regions of England

自21世纪初以来,英国城市规划领域重新将公众健康问题纳入关注焦点。建成环境对人们行为和健康的影响作用已在英国国家规划指南中得到正式认可。在此背景下,支持公众健康生活已成为当代城市规划师的日常工作。依据英国国家规划指导方针,规划部门可以采取措施来减轻快餐零售对公众健康可能产生的不利影响,但这些措施的决策权归属于地方行政管理机构。设立学校周边的快餐店管理区是英国常见的面向公众健康的规划干预措施。在快餐店管理区,规划部门出于公众健康考虑,可拒绝授予新的快餐零售用途规划许可,从而降低未来人群消费不健康食品的可能性。英国的快餐管理区政策已实施十余年,笔者正负责一项由英国国家卫生研究院资助的食品环境空间干预效果评估研究。本文中,笔者首先介绍了快餐店管理区政策,进而总结了干预政策效果评估的初步研究结果。最后,笔者分享了对于英国当前城市规划体系作为公共卫生干预手段的观察,并探讨了利用城市规划促进公众健康的潜力。

Since the early 2000s,urban planning in the United Kingdom has seen a renewed focus on population health.The role of built environments in shaping our behaviors and health is now formally recognized in national planning guidance.Supporting people to lead healthy lives is now day-to-day business for the modern urban planner in this context.According to national planning guidelines,planners can already take action on fast food retail in particular,which has been associated with poor health.But the decision to act is local.One of the most commonly adopted planning interventions for health across England was fast-food outlet management zones around schools.These are areas where,on health grounds,planning permission can be denied to prospective fast-food retailers,thereby reducing future population exposure to this important source of typically unhealthy food.In this commentary,the author summarizes early findings from an NIHR-funded evaluation of the impacts of management zones across all instances of adoption,over the period of more than a decade in England.The author also shares some observations on the current urban planning system in England as a form of public health intervention,including how it might evolve to fulfill its potential in this role.