Using systems science to understand the determinants of inequities in healthy eating
Fig 4
CLD for determinants of inequities in healthy eating, showing sub-systems.
The arrows indicate the direction and polarity of influence. Solid lines indicate positive polarity and dashed lines indicate negative polarity. Positive polarity means that the initiating variable influences the receiving variable in the same direction of change (e.g. as the ‘distance between households and food retailers’ goes up, so does the ‘time spent travelling to food retailers’). Negative polarity means that the initiating variable influences the receiving variable in the opposite direction (e.g. when the ‘level of misinformation about unhealthy foods’ falls, an individual’s ‘ability to sort through conflicting health related messages’ rises). Polarities do not indicate the rate of influence, and it is important to note that change may occur at uneven rates within the diagram.