Exploring solutions to reduce diet-related health inequities in people experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage

Nutritional intake and dietary patterns significantly impact a person’s health and disease trajectory throughout life. These patterns are influenced by factors such as genetics, psychological factors, health literacy, nutrition knowledge, social and cultural influences, physical environments, food prices, employment conditions, food marketing, economic disparities and government policies. Collectively, these factors affect long-term dietary patterns and nutrition-related health outcomes. Poor diet quality is a key modifiable risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs), contributing to 11 million deaths and 255 million disability-adjusted life years globally. Health inequities, including higher rates of NCDs, disability, and early mortality, are significantly higher among people experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage compared to the general population. Socioeconomic disadvantage is a primary driver of food insecurity and lack of access to standard health care, further exacerbating diet-related health inequities.

Although NCDs have complex and multifaceted causes, focusing on reducing modifiable risk factors such as suboptimal diet and improved access to health services, could effectively reduce or prevent these diseases. Nutrition interventions are highly effective in the prevention and treatment of NCDs, therefore improving dietary practices should be a central component in addressing health inequities, especially for people experiencing disadvantage. Despite this knowledge, there is limited research on long-term effective strategies to address dietary-related health inequities among people experiencing disadvantage, and there has been minimal collaboration with those directly involved in either accessing or providing services, where interventions could be particularly impactful. This highlights a need for broader innovative solutions. The primary aim of this research was to investigate the current landscape of nutrition-related services within charitable food and charitable residential care. There was a focus on developing policies and/or practices that are considerate of social, environmental and economic barriers to promote long-term nutritional health and minimise the risk of NCDs, and reduce diet-related health inequities. Additionally, this research sought to collaborate with key stakeholders to develop a cost-effective, self-sustaining framework for organisations, with broad applicability to improve nutrition-related health outcomes for people experiencing disadvantage.