Spanish children are subjected to a constant bombardment of advertisements for unhealthy foods and drinks, which encourage them to eat ultra-processed foods and make it difficult for them to learn to eat healthily.
Until now, it was known that these impacts are around 4,000 a year on television alone.
Now, a complete study has measured the data from a sample of 1,600 children from four to 16 years old, which allows the impacts to be distributed by socioeconomic level.
The result is that children whose families have low income see twice as many advertisements for unhealthy foods as those with higher purchasing power.
This is one of the factors that results in the obesity rate of poor students being twice that of rich students.
The Government still has not approved the decree to regulate this advertising, prepared since 2021 and which Agriculture stopped during the last legislature.
“Until now we had made general estimates based on television audience data, but this is the first study in Spain in which we directly measure the impacts,” says Miguel Ángel Royo-Bordonada, professor at the National School of Health. and one of the country's leading experts on childhood obesity.
“This allows us to see the differences by social class and, although it was expected that the impact would be greater on lower class children, the result has surprised us due to the great difference that exists, since it is double that of those from wealthy families.
And we have also been able to see the time distribution and discover that many of these advertisements are seen outside of child protection hours,” continues the main author of the work.
According to the report published in the scientific journal
BMC Public Health,
participants saw a weekly average of 82.4 food and drink advertisements, 67.4 of which were for unhealthy products (81.8%), and also the majority outside the child protection time slot.
On average, lower-class participants received 94.4% more impacts from unhealthy food and beverage advertising than upper-class participants (99.9 vs. 51.4, respectively).
“The exposure of lower-class children doubles that of upper-class children, a finding compatible with the high prevalence of childhood obesity in Spain and the related socioeconomic inequalities,” the study states.
Indeed, according to the Aladino Study presented by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs in 2019 - latest data available - children from families with gross annual incomes greater than 30,000 euros suffer from obesity in 11.9% of cases, while those from With incomes of less than 18,000 euros, 23.2% suffer from it, that is, double.
This work also indicates that 23.3% of Spanish students from six to nine years old are overweight and 17.3% suffer from obesity.
Royo-Bordonada believes that “there is a correlation” between the results of both studies: “It has been shown that the more advertisements for unhealthy foods children see, the worse they eat.
It is an exhibition that induces them to consume these products, which are also cheap and accessible, by appealing to positive emotions.
And that leads to them having worse eating habits, consuming more ultra-processed foods and having a greater risk of suffering from obesity.”
And why does it affect the lower classes more?
“Because their parents usually have worse schedules, fewer resources and less time available to pay attention to them.
They also tend to have a harder time doing other leisure activities beyond watching television.
A variable that is highly associated with obesity is the educational level of the parents: those who go through university tend to have more skills and tools to protect their children from an obesogenic environment [that encourages obesity].”
A decree to regulate advertising
Experts and nutritionists agree that the current advertising self-regulation of the food sector does not work, since children continue to receive thousands of advertisements for unhealthy products a year, even during children's hours.
To change the situation, the previous Ministry of Consumer Affairs, in the hands of Unidas Podemos, prepared a decree in 2021 to prohibit the advertising of unhealthy foods and drinks (including chocolates, sweets, cookies, desserts, juices and ice cream) aimed at children and adolescents on television, radio, social networks, websites, applications, cinema and newspapers.
The norm passed all the mandatory procedures, but the Ministry of Agriculture, of the PSOE, flatly refused to approve it, as Minister Alberto Garzón denounced on several occasions.
The new Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption and Agenda 2030, now in the hands of Sumar, has shown its intention to resume the project.
“It is a priority.
It is one of the projects that could not be completed in the previous legislature and that we will resume.
There is consensus in the scientific community both on the seriousness of the problem and that the self-regulation framework alone has been insufficient to protect minors, so the commitment is clear," sources from this department tell EL PAÍS, although For now there is no date to do so.
Meanwhile, Agriculture explains that there is no news about the rule.
Several sources consulted trust that the Ministry of Health, now also in the hands of Sumar, will help promote the decree in this legislature - although it has no powers in the matter - but Mónica García's department does not offer information on the subject.
Royo-Bordonada summarizes: “The decree is prepared and should be issued as soon as possible.
Public administrations have to protect children, exposed to unhealthy advertising that violates their right to health, education and information."
Methodology
The work, called
Differences in children's exposure to television advertising of unhealthy foods and beverages in Spain by socio-economic level
, consists of an observational study of the impact of television advertising in a sample of 1,590 children from four to 16 years old.
The sample has been drawn from a panel of consumers representative of the Spanish population in this age group throughout a complete week of broadcast in February 2022, through Kantar audiometers (a control in which each member of the family presses when watching the broadcast).
The sample was obtained through random sampling stratified by autonomous communities, establishing quotas based on sociodemographic variables.
Exposure was measured with an audiometer and the nutrient content of the advertised foods and beverages was analyzed using the nutritional profile of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe.
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