IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/snbeco/v3y2023i9d10.1007_s43546-023-00536-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Out-of-home food environment and the COVID-19 pandemic: an interrupted time-series analysis in England 2019–2021

Author

Listed:
  • Huasheng Xiang

    (Lancaster University)

  • Louis Goffe

    (Newcastle University
    Gateshead Council)

  • Viviana Albani

    (Newcastle University)

  • Nasima Akhter

    (Durham University)

  • Amelia Lake

    (Teesside University School of Health and Life Sciences
    Fuse Centre for Translational Research in Public Health)

  • Heather Brown

    (Lancaster University)

Abstract

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK government introduced three waves of national lockdowns and other measures to limit the spread of the virus between 2020 and 2021. A key component of these national lockdowns required the out-of-home food sector, such as restaurants and pubs, to operate only as takeaways. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the out-of-home food environment in England. Using monthly data collected at the local authority level between March 2019 to December 2021, we employed an interrupted time-series approach to analyze the trends of eight different types of food outlets: (1) fast food/sandwich shop; (2) pub/night club/bar; (3) restaurant/café/canteen; (4) supermarket; (5) mobile caterer; (6) other catering premise, (7) fast food chains, and (8) non-chained hot food outlets. Our findings suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic had heterogeneously impacted on different types of food outlets. After the easing of restrictions only restaurants, mobile caterers, pubs, and supermarkets grew, whereas fast food outlets and mobile caters did not. However, when looking at chained and non-chained fast food outlets, non-chained food outlets were more responsive to government policy during the pandemic such as the Eat Out To Help Out scheme, whereas after restrictions eased, chained outlets grew at a faster rate compared to their non-chained counterparts, but all fast food outlets had lower growth than before the pandemic. It is important to understand how the food environment is evolving and changing especially in relation to shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The food environment has a direct and indirect impact on the economy and population health. Thus, it is of great value to understand how it is changing and when and where there is a role for government intervention.

Suggested Citation

  • Huasheng Xiang & Louis Goffe & Viviana Albani & Nasima Akhter & Amelia Lake & Heather Brown, 2023. "Out-of-home food environment and the COVID-19 pandemic: an interrupted time-series analysis in England 2019–2021," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(9), pages 1-16, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:snbeco:v:3:y:2023:i:9:d:10.1007_s43546-023-00536-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s43546-023-00536-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43546-023-00536-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s43546-023-00536-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ariel Linden, 2022. "Erratum: A comprehensive set of postestimation measures to enrich interrupted time-series analysis," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 22(1), pages 231-233, March.
    2. Ariel Linden, 2017. "A comprehensive set of postestimation measures to enrich interrupted time-series analysis," Stata Journal, StataCorp LP, vol. 17(1), pages 73-88, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ruri Okubo & Ryusuke Matsumoto & Eishi Motomura & Motohiro Okada, 2024. "Uncertainties of Economic Policy and Government Management Stability Played Important Roles in Increasing Suicides in Japan from 2009 to 2023," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(10), pages 1-18, October.
    2. Samba Diop & Simplice A. Asongu, 2022. "The impact of Covid-19 and Russia-Ukraine war on food prices in fragile countries: misfortunes never come singly," Working Papers 22/055, European Xtramile Centre of African Studies (EXCAS).
    3. Elvina Merkaj & Raffaella Santolini, 2021. "National Policies In Response To The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Case Of Friuli-Venezia-Giulia And Umbria," Working Papers 456, Universita' Politecnica delle Marche (I), Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Sociali.
    4. Fiorentini, Gianluca & Bruni, Matteo Lippi & Mammi, Irene, 2022. "The same old medicine but cheaper: The impact of patent expiry on physicians’ prescribing behaviour," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 204(C), pages 37-68.
    5. Paraje, Guillermo & Colchero, Arantxa & Wlasiuk, Juan Marcos & Sota, Antonio Martner & Popkin, Barry M., 2021. "The effects of the Chilean food policy package on aggregate employment and real wages," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    6. Wang, Daniel & Vasconcelos, Natália Pires de & Poirier, Mathieu JP & Chieffi, Ana & Mônaco, Cauê & Sritharan, Lathika & Van Katwyk, Susan Rogers & Hoffman, Steven J, 2020. "Health technology assessment and judicial deference to priority-setting decisions in healthcare: Quasi-experimental analysis of right-to-health litigation in Brazil," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    7. Schaefer, K. Aleks & Scheitrum, Daniel, 2020. "Sewing terror: price dynamics of the strawberry needle crisis," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 64(2), April.
    8. Merkaj, Elvina & Santolini, Raffaella, 2022. "Italian national policies in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: The case of the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and Umbria Regions," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 126(4), pages 287-293.
    9. Ryusuke Matsumoto & Eishi Motomura & Motohiro Okada, 2024. "Impacts of Working Hours, Wages, and Regular Employment Opportunity on Suicide Mortalities of Employed and Unemployed Individuals before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Japan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 21(4), pages 1-17, April.
    10. Koen Geven & Jan Skopek & Moris Triventi, 2018. "How to Increase PhD Completion Rates? An Impact Evaluation of Two Reforms in a Selective Graduate School, 1976–2012," Research in Higher Education, Springer;Association for Institutional Research, vol. 59(5), pages 529-552, August.
    11. Joseph Kamanga & Kayla Stankevitz & Andres Martinez & Robert Chiegil & Lameck Nyirenda & Florence Mulenga & Mario Chen & Mulamuli Mpofu & Sam Lubasi & Moses Bateganya, 2021. "Improved HIV case finding among key populations after differentiated data driven community testing approaches in Zambia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(12), pages 1-13, December.
    12. Iswahyudi, Heru, 2021. "Aggressiveness as Performance Signaling: Forced Distribution Rating System in Tax Authority," MPRA Paper 120318, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Hong, Sunmin & Jeong, Dohyo & Kim, Pyung, 2024. "Have offender demographics changed since the COVID-19 pandemic? Evidence from money mules in South Korea," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    14. Shuduo Zhou & Jin Xu & Xiaochen Ma & Beibei Yuan & Xiaoyun Liu & Hai Fang & Qingyue Meng, 2020. "How Can One Strengthen a Tiered Healthcare System through Health System Reform? Lessons Learnt from Beijing, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(21), pages 1-14, October.
    15. Jinyi Wang & Dapeng Yin & Guoxing Li & Tianqi Wang & Yanli Zhang & Hui Gan & Jinfang Sun, 2022. "Impacts of COVID-19 Prevention and Control Measures on Asthma-Related Hospital and Outpatient Visits in Yichang, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(20), pages 1-10, October.
    16. Guy Martial Takam Fongang, 2017. "Adoption and impact of improved maize varieties on maize yield in Cameroon: A macro-impact evaluation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 37(4), pages 2496-2504.
    17. Christopher David Absell, 2020. "The rise of coffee in the Brazilian south‐east: tariffs and foreign market potential, 1827–40," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 73(4), pages 964-990, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:snbeco:v:3:y:2023:i:9:d:10.1007_s43546-023-00536-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.