Food marketing and gender among children and adolescents: a scoping review

• Published in: Nutrition journal Vol. 20; no. 1; p. 52
• Main Authors: Castronuovo, Luciana, Guarnieri, Leila, Tiscornia, María Victoria, Allemandi, Lorena
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 07.06.2021; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Advertising; Age; Body weight; Child; Children; Children and adolescents; Cross-Sectional Studies; Design; Developing countries; Eating behavior; Female; Females; Food; Food consumption; Food habits; Food industry; Food intake; Food marketing; Food Preferences; Food products; Gender; Gender differences; Gender perspective; Health disparities; Humans; Influence; LDCs; Male; Market strategy; Marketing; Obesity; Obesity in adolescence; Obesity in children; Overweight; Pandemics; Pediatric Obesity - epidemiology; Pediatric Obesity - prevention & control; Pediatric research; Public health; Reviews; Risk factors; Scoping review; Sex differences; Sex differences (Psychology); Stereotyped behavior; Stereotypes; Teenagers; Television; Youth market; Argentina; Scoping review; Children and adolescents; Food marketing; Gender perspective
• ISSN: 1475-2891; 1475-2891
• DOI: 10.1186/s12937-021-00706-4

Pervasive marketing of unhealthy foods is a contributing factor to the growth of the global epidemic of childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity. Sex and gender differences come into play in the design of and responses to these marketing strategies, contributing to the perpetuation of stereotyped behavior and generating disparities in food choices and health. The purpose of this paper is to review the current literature regarding gender differences in food marketing design and perception among children and adolescents to facilitate evidence-based policy dialogues to address gender-based health disparities in NCD prevention. Scoping review of articles published in scientific journals in English and Spanish, from 2003 to 2018, that addressed the influence of food marketing among children and adolescents including a gender perspective. The methodological quality of each article was assessed following criteria specific to each study design. From a total of 37 articles (39 studies) included in the review, 17 were experimental and 22 had descriptive, cross-sectional designs. Twenty-one studies were found to have low methodological quality, while 10 and 8 were of medium and high quality, respectively. A total of 23 studies among children and adolescents found gender-based differences. Differences were found in the following dimensions: food marketing on intake; responses to specific marketing; perceptions and attitudes towards food marketing and marketing regulation initiatives; exposure to food advertising and gendered marketing content. The evidence was not conclusive in any of the dimensions. The evidence suggests that food marketing has a similar impact on the consumption of unhealthy foods on boys and girls, but boys were found to be exposed to food advertising more intensively and their preferences to be more affected by this exposure, coinciding with a male-dominant advertising content. Limitations of these studies include taking gender as an unproblematic construct equivalent to biological sex and the lack of studies focused on developing countries. As gender is a cross-sectional dimension that interacts with other factors driving health disparities, an integrated gender perspective is needed to develop effective, evidence-based policies to control food marketing and tackle the childhood overweight and obesity pandemic.