About this Research Topic
Dietary risk factors contribute to about 20% of all-cause mortality worldwide, and to a substantial part of disabilities, hospitalization, and loss of productivity caused by preventable non-communicable chronic diseases (NCDs). Much progress has been achieved in the understanding of the effect of food and nutrients to prevent NCDs. The next challenge is how to implement actions and policies to build healthier food environments and encourage people to adopt healthier diets. Social and cultural acceptability and income are important barriers that should be accounted for any populational dietary interventions. Likewise, the health impact (i.e., preventable deaths and diseases, increase in nutrient adequacy, and increase in life expectancy) should also be considered as a relevant indicator to balance the economic burden of dietary interventions. In addition, any health improvement potentially has other direct and indirect impacts on the economy, such as saving health care costs to health systems and individuals and productivity losses from the reducing NCDs and premature deaths.
This Research Topic aims to publish original, high-quality, and relevant articles measuring the direct and indirect economic and health impacts of empirical or theoretical dietary interventions in different population settings in order to subside cost-effective practice and policies.
Original research, systematic review, review, methods, and brief research report articles including but not limited to the following topics are welcome:
• Diet cost with respect to several aspects: health, safety, social acceptability, and sustainability;
• Economic analysis of dietary interventions (regarding foods or specific nutrients) in a population. For example, how many deaths and incident cases would be prevented? How much would the intervention cost and how many individuals could afford those diets? How much would be saved by the health systems as a consequence of the dietary interventions?
• Assessment of economic and health impacts of policies and dietary guidelines;
• Methodologies to estimate the health (mortality, morbidity, life expectancy) and economic impacts of dietary interventions;
• Associations between food prices, income, and health outcomes.
This Research Topic aims to publish original, high-quality, and relevant articles measuring the direct and indirect economic and health impacts of empirical or theoretical dietary interventions in different population settings in order to subside cost-effective practice and policies.
Original research, systematic review, review, methods, and brief research report articles including but not limited to the following topics are welcome:
• Diet cost with respect to several aspects: health, safety, social acceptability, and sustainability;
• Economic analysis of dietary interventions (regarding foods or specific nutrients) in a population. For example, how many deaths and incident cases would be prevented? How much would the intervention cost and how many individuals could afford those diets? How much would be saved by the health systems as a consequence of the dietary interventions?
• Assessment of economic and health impacts of policies and dietary guidelines;
• Methodologies to estimate the health (mortality, morbidity, life expectancy) and economic impacts of dietary interventions;
• Associations between food prices, income, and health outcomes.
Keywords: diet cost, food prices, economics, burden of diseases, dietary interventions, cost-effectiveness
Important Note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.
