UNE's School of Community and Population Health holds first of several stakeholder group meetings as part of Health Impact Assessment on Sugar Sweetened Beverage Research

The Maine Prevention Research Center at UNE's School of Community and Population Health recently held its first stakeholder group meeting as part of the Maine Sugar Sweetened Excise Tax Health Impact Assessment. The first meeting included the Maine Public Health Association, the Maine Dietetic Association, as well as other organizations and individuals interested in the health of Maine populations.

The Maine Prevention Research Center will be convening several stakeholder groups, including industry groups, over the next few months to help understand the potential health effects and other impacts of such a tax on Maine populations. The purpose of conducting this health impact assessment is to improve the quality of public policy decision-making with regard to a potential sugar sweetened beverage excise tax.

Michele Polacsek, Ph.D., M.H.S., associate professor of public health, is leading the assessment with help from Assistant Professor Karen O'Rourke, M.P.H.

A health impact assessment is a collection of procedures and tools by which policies can be evaluated based on their potential effects on the health of a population and the distribution of those effects within the population. Read more about this strategy.

The Maine Prevention Research Center is a U.S. CDC-funded partnership between UNE, Harvard School of Public Health, and U.S. CDC to research and promote evidence-based practices to reduce overweight and obesity in Maine. UNE's School of Community and Population Health is located on UNE's Portland campus, has Maine's only accredited Master of Public Health (MPH) program with about 250 students and 30 faculty and staff, and provides public health research, training, and practice programs in Maine, across the country, and globally.
 

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