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PORTLAND, Maine

Michele Polacsek presents school food and beverage marketing research at the Harvard School of Public Health

Michele Polacsek, Ph.D., M.H.S., associate professor for the School of Community and Population Health (SCHP), presented research findings at a monthly seminar for faculty and students, sponsored by the Harvard Prevention Research Center at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, Massachusetts on December 3, 2014.

In her presentation, Polacsek shared data from a 2010 study of Maine high schools, which demonstrated widespread marketing not compliant with a statewide law banning certain types of non-nutritious food and beverage marketing in schools.

She also presented preliminary data from a current study that showed food and beverage marketing in three Portland schools, and explored compliance with a new federal marketing ban that will likely go into effect in the next academic year.

Both studies were funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Healthy Eating Research Program, and the Maine Prevention Research Center at the University of New England. A report outlining findings from the current study will be available in the summer of 2015.

The Maine Prevention Research Center is a partnership between UNE and the Harvard School of Public Health to research and promote evidence-based practices to reduce overweight and obesity in Maine.  

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The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.