Water in Sport
Global Centre for Preventive Health and NutritionA VicHealth-led collaboration to make water the drink of choice in Victorian local government sport and recreation facilities.
Results
A total of 39 facilities made substantial changes to promote healthier drink environments:
- The availability of healthy drinks increased from 43% to 63% of all drinks and sugary drinks decreased from 39% to 11%.
- All participating councils began implementing policies to sustain these healthy changes, with four councils adopting healthy food retail policies by February 2020.
- At seasonal pools and clubs, sales of sugary drinks dropped by 19%, resulting in an average revenue decrease of $82 per week per facility.
- In facilities open year-round, sugary drink sales fell by 11% without affecting overall revenue.
- Over 2,000 surveys of customers and staff were conducted before and after the initiative, revealing that over 70% believed these facilities have a responsibility to promote healthy eating.
Team members
Dr Miranda Blake
Dr Tara Boelsen-Robinson
Prof Adrian Cameron
Prof Liliana Orellana
Deakin Distinguished Prof Anna Peeters
Ms Devorah Riesenberg
Dr Helena Romaniuk
Acknowledgment
This project was funded by the Victorian Health Promotion Foundation (VicHealth) ‘Water in Sport’ project, including salary support for team members who are researchers within the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) funded Centre of Research Excellence in Food Retail Environments for Health (RE-FRESH) (APP1152968).
The opinions, analysis, and conclusions in this paper are those of the authors and should not be attributed to the NHMRC or VicHealth.