Brimblecombe, Julie

Ferguson, Megan

McMahon, Emma

Fredericks, Bronwyn

Turner, Nicole

Pollard, Christina

Maple-Brown, Louise

Batstone, Joanna

McCarthy, Leisa

Miles, Eddie

De Silva, Khia

Barnes, Adam

Chatfield, Mark

Hill, Amanda

Christian, Meaghan

van Burgel, Emma

Fairweather, Molly

Murison, Anna

Lukose, Dickson

Gaikwad, Surekha

Lewis, Meron

Clancy, Rebekah

Santos, Claire

Uhlmann, Kora

Funston, Sarah

Baddeley, Laura

Tsekouras, Sally

Ananthapavan, Jaithri

Sacks, Gary

Lee, Amanda

2024-07-05

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in remote Australia have initiated bold policies for health-enabling stores. Benchmarking, a data-driven and facilitated 'audit and feedback' with action planning process, provides a potential strategy to strengthen and scale health-enabling best-practice adoption by remote community store directors/owners. We aim to co-design a benchmarking model with five partner organisations and test its effectiveness with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community stores in remote Australia.Study design is a pragmatic randomised controlled trial with consenting eligible stores (located in very remote Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, primary grocery store for an Aboriginal community, and serviced by a Nutrition Practitioner with a study partner organisation). The Benchmarking model is informed by research evidence, purpose-built best-practice audit and feedback tools, and co-designed with partner organisation and community representatives. The intervention comprises two full benchmarking cycles (one per year, 2022/23 and 2023/24) of assessment, feedback, action planning and action implementation. Assessment of stores includes i adoption status of 21 evidence-and industry-informed health-enabling policies for remote stores, ii implementation of health-enabling best-practice using a purpose-built Store Scout App, iii price of a standardised healthy diet using the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Healthy Diets ASAP protocol; and, iv healthiness of food purchasing using sales data indicators. Partner organisations feedback reports and co-design action plans with stores. Control stores receive assessments and continue with usual retail practice. All stores provide weekly electronic sales data to assess the primary outcome, change in free sugars (g) to energy (MJ) from all food and drinks purchased, baseline (July-December 2021) vs July-December 2023.We hypothesise that the benchmarking intervention can improve the adoption of health-enabling store policy and practice and reduce sales of unhealthy foods and drinks in remote community stores of Australia. This innovative research with remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities can inform effective implementation strategies for healthy food retail more broadly.ACTRN12622000596707, Protocol version 1.

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3168, Australia. Julie.brimblecombe@monash.edu.

School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Level 4 Public Health Building, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia. Julie.brimblecombe@monash.edu.

Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Royal Darwin Hospital Campus, Darwin, NT, Australia. Julie.brimblecombe@monash.edu.

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3168, Australia.

School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Level 4 Public Health Building, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.

Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Royal Darwin Hospital Campus, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3168, Australia.

School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Level 4 Public Health Building, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.

Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Royal Darwin Hospital Campus, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Office of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor, The University of Queensland, Herston, QLD, 4006, Australia.

Indigenous Allied Health Australia, Alia House, Napier Cl, 2600, Deakin, ACT, Australia.

Charles Perkins Centre, University of Sydney John Hopkins Dr, Camperdown, NSW, 2050, Australia.

Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.

Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Royal Darwin Hospital Campus, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Monash Data Futures Institute, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Royal Darwin Hospital Campus, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Royal Darwin Hospital Campus, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Community First Development, 1/67 Townshend St, Phillip, ACT, 2606, Australia.

Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation, 70 O'Sullivan Cct, East Arm, NT, 0822, Australia.

NT Health, Manunda Place, 38 Cavenagh Street, Darwin, NT, 0800, Australia.

School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Level 4 Public Health Building, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.

Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Royal Darwin Hospital Campus, Darwin, NT, Australia.

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3168, Australia.

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3168, Australia.

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3168, Australia.

Faculty of Health Sciences, Curtin School of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia.

Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3168, Australia.

Outback Stores, 67 Pruen Rd, Berrimah, NT, 0828, Australia.

Monash Data Futures Institute, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

Monash Data Futures Institute, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.

School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Level 4 Public Health Building, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.

Miwatj Health Aboriginal Corporation, Lot 1425 Arnhem Road, Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia.

Population and Primary Health Care Outreach Team, NT Health, Casuarina Plaza, 258 Trower Road, Darwin, NT, 0810, Australia.

Health and Wellbeing Queensland, 139 Coronation Drive, Milton, QLD, 4064, Australia.

Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation, 70 O'Sullivan Cct, East Arm, NT, 0822, Australia.

Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation, 70 O'Sullivan Cct, East Arm, NT, 0822, Australia.

Katherine West Health Board Aboriginal Corporation, 38 First St, Katherine, NT, 0850, Australia.

Deakin Health Economics, School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Institute for Health Transformation, Geelong, Australia.

Global Centre for Preventive Health and Nutrition, School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Institute for Health Transformation, Geelong, Australia.

School of Public Health, The University of Queensland, Level 4 Public Health Building, Herston, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia.

BMC Public Health . 2024 Jul 5;24(1):1790. doi: 10.1186/s12889-024-19277-0.

1471-2458

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38970046/?otool=iaurydwlib

https://hdl.handle.net/10137/13449

Benchmarking

Continuous improvement

Diet

Health policy

Implementation strategy

Indigenous health

Humans

Australia

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Benchmarking

Commerce

Diet, Healthy

Food Supply

Rural Population

Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic

Benchmarking for healthy food stores: protocol for a randomised controlled trial with remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities in Australia to enhance adoption of health-enabling store policy and practice.

Journal Article

Publication