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

Background: Population-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 analysis: We 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. Discussion: The 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 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/M35YX ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study did not receive any funding. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present work are contained in the manuscript.