Effectiveness of the Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership’s media advocacy activities

Published in the Nutrition Journal on 16 September 2020, Rosewarne et al evaluated the Victorian Salt Reduction Partnership’s media advocacy activities by determining the extent to which activities contributed to the overall strategy aims and the effectiveness of the activities in gaining media and industry engagement. Guided by Stead et al’s framework for evaluating media advocacy strategies used in complex public health interventions, three key research methods were used to conduct the analysis, which were: (1) monitoring and audit of media advocacy activities, (2) content analysis (3) descriptive quantitative analysis of media coverage and industry engagement. The study found six media releases were issued between March 2017 and November 2018 covering six different processed food categories. Three main themes were identified in the qualitative analysis of the press statements, which were aligned with the overall intervention strategy. Ten food manufacturers were engaged and up to 7.5 million Australians had the opportunity to see each media advocacy activity. To access the full text article, click here.