Rates of childhood overweight and obesity continue to rise in England, along with a growing gap in obesity prevalence between children in the most and least deprived areas. To address child obesity, the UK government is increasingly considering how to intervene in the (food) environments that shape people’s purchases, rather than focusing solely on individual health behaviors. With the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns having rapidly reconfigured life in the UK, it is important to understand how these changes may have impacted food practices and engagement with food environments. This remote, longitudinal qualitative study seeks to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts are shaping families relationships with the food and the food environment. A sample of 60–80 parents/carers of school or nursery-aged children will be recruited from across three case study sites in England to take part in semi-structured interviews and set of flexible creative activities at three time points over the course of a year. Findings will provide practical policy insights for England’s obesity prevention strategy as well as methodological insights in terms of conducting research into lived experience remotely.

在英格兰，儿童超重和肥胖症的发病率继续上升，而在最贫困和最贫困地区的儿童之间的肥胖率差距越来越大。为了解决儿童肥胖问题，英国政府越来越多地考虑如何干预影响人们购买行为的（食物）环境，而不是仅仅关注个人的健康行为。由于COVID-19大流行和随后的封锁在英国迅速改变了人们的生活，因此了解这些变化可能如何影响饮食习惯和与食物环境的接触非常重要。这项偏远的纵向定性研究旨在探讨COVID-19大流行及其影响如何影响家庭与食物和食物环境的关系。在英格兰的三个案例研究地点，将招募60-80名学校或幼儿园年龄儿童的父母/照顾者样本，以在整个过程中的三个时间点参加半结构化访谈和一系列灵活的创意活动。年。研究结果将为英国的肥胖症预防策略提供实用的政策见解，并在远程研究生活经验方面提供方法上的见解。