| خلاصه مقاله | Background and Aim: Prioritizing and identifying the best nutritional policies for preventing and controlling non-communicable diseases (NCDs)
Methods: A Delphi study was used to prioritize policy options in preventing the burden
of NCDs among health managers and other experts in health and nutrition policymaking.
The experts were asked to prioritize policy options with regard to feasibility, implementation costs, stability, and acceptance by the authority and society on a 5-point Likert
scale scoring. Data were analyzed using basic descriptive statistical tests and expressed
as mean, median, interquartile rate (IQR. (An IQR < 1 was used to indicate consensus.
Also, the highest mean and lowest dispersion index indicated an option as high priority.
Results: The expert achieved consensus on “principles of healthy eating” courses in the
curriculum of students as a high-priority policy option. In this regard, “promoting community education and customizing healthy food choice” was the next high priority policy
option. On the other hand, the lowest policy priority option was “sending free/low-price
healthy drinks at home”. The three high priority policy categories were reformulating the
content of food, enhancing the consumers’ knowledge, and food labeling, respectively.
Conclusion: Reformulation, food promotion, and food labeling were the highest priorities for preventing NCDs in Iran, as revealed by our findings. Providing sub-structures
for food product reformulation is crucial, despite the cost-effectiveness of food provision
policies in developing countries like Iran. |