Obesity Prevention Efforts in France, Italy, and Japan - A Scoping Review Protocol

BackgroundPopulation-level prevention efforts in the US have yet to correct the upward trends in increasing US obesity prevalence. Italy, France, and Japan are high-income countries that have employed approaches aimed at obesity prevention that may have contributed to their favorable obesity trends. It is plausible that these efforts could be culturally adapted with similar effectiveness to the US population. This paper outlines the protocol of a scoping review that will identify and characterize the range of obesity prevention efforts implemented in Italy, France, and Japan to inform potential strategies for obesity prevention in the US. Methods and analysisWe will conduct a systematic search in PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane. We will assess articles that describe any national, regional, or local public health and/or clinical guideline, recommendation, intervention, campaign, policy or other population-level effort targeting obesity prevention in Italy, France, and Japan. Two independent reviewers will screen the articles, and a third independent reviewer will resolve conflicts that arise upon screening. Descriptive synthesis will be performed to describe the country-specific prevention strategies and summarize the available evidence for their effectiveness. DiscussionThe purpose of this paper is to describe the study protocol for a scoping review that will provide a comprehensive summary of available evidence for obesity prevention strategies that have been implemented in Italy, France, and Japan. These strategies will inform potential prevention efforts for consideration in the US. Scoping review registration DOIhttps://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/M35YX.