This scientific article, published in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, examines the regulatory and fiscal policy workstream of the Joint Action PreventNCD. The paper outlines how this workstream aims to strengthen compliance, coherence, implementation, and enforcement of evidence-based population-level interventions to reduce non-communicable diseases (NCDs) across Europe.
The authors describe a comprehensive, multi-method approach that includes policy mapping, evidence reviews, modelling, behavioural research, and pilot testing. The workstream evaluates governmental policies on alcohol, tobacco, food environments, and environmental risk factors, and projects the health and economic impacts of fiscal policies such as health taxes. It also develops nutrient profiling tools, assesses labelling interventions, and tests new approaches to monitoring digital marketing exposure among children and young people.
By generating practical evidence and documenting cross-national policy variations, the workstream seeks to support EU Member States in adopting more effective, equitable, and coherent regulatory measures. The paper emphasizes the importance of structural interventions—such as taxation, marketing restrictions, sustainable public food procurement, and environmental regulation—in reducing the burden of preventable NCDs and supporting healthier environments.
Read the full article in the Scandinavian Journal of Public Health.