Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Dec 16, 2024
Date Accepted: Jun 4, 2025
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
How labelling of commercial baby foods impacts parents’ beliefs about sugar content and related purchasing and feeding decisions: A scoping review protocol
ABSTRACT
Background:
Infants and young children in the UK exceed guidelines for maximum sugar intake. Many parents choose commercial baby foods believing these to be a healthy option. However, surveys show many products contain high levels of added or free sugar, despite labelling suggesting they are ‘natural’ and ‘healthy’. Current labeling may mislead parents about products’ sugar content. However, the literature lacks a comprehensive understanding of the range of changes to commercial baby food labels that might best support parents to choose healthier foods for their children.
Objective:
This scoping review will assess the published and unpublished evidence base to understand what is known about how labelling of baby foods impacts parents’ beliefs about a product’s sugar content and related purchasing and feeding decisions.
Methods:
JBI guidelines for scoping review methodology will be followed and results will be reported using PRISMA-ScR guidelines. The Population, Concept and Context (PCC) framework will be used to determine eligibility criteria. An initial search of MEDLINE (Ovid) and Embase (Ovid) was conducted to develop a full search strategy for MEDLINE (Ovid), which is presented here. In addition to MEDLINE (Ovid) and Embase (Ovid), we will search PsycINFO (Ovid), CINAHL (Ebsco), Web of Science (Core Collection) and Cochrane Library. Unpublished reports will be identified using Google, Google Scholar, relevant websites, policy statements and government reports, and by contacting relevant government and third-sector organisations. In a two-stage process, two reviewers will independently screen titles and abstracts, and then full texts. Reference lists of included studies will also be searched. One reviewer will then extract data and a second will verify accuracy. Findings will be presented in tables and diagrams, accompanied by a narrative summary.
Results:
The search process produced 2071 records in May 2024. Following deduplication, 1123 results remained. The scoping review will draw together information about parents’ beliefs about sugar in infant food products and related purchasing decisions, including the role of marketing messages and sugar warning labels.
Conclusions:
This scoping review will provide knowledge to inform the development of policies to support parents’ to make healthier food choices for their infants.
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