The role of collective impact in improving nutrition. A scoping review

Background: Collective impact is gaining traction to improve population health outcomes. This study aimed to determine where and how collective impact is being used in nutrition and describe current understandings of its impacts or results on health or nutrition outcomes. Methods: A systematic scoping review was undertaken with four databases (‘CINAHL Plus’, ‘Sociological Abstracts’, ‘PsychInfo’, and ‘OVID Medline’) using the search term ‘Collective Impact’ from 2011 up to November 2022. All studies were screened independently by two authors. Data were extracted and synthesised narratively. Results: A total of 712 different documents were identified, with four studies included in the synthesis. Collective impact approaches focussed on breastfeeding, reducing sugar-sweetened beverage consumption, increasing access to healthy food, and obesity. Across the four included studies, promising results in improving health and nutrition were reported. Conclusion: Evaluating and reporting on the outcomes of collective impact initiatives in nutrition using robust methods is needed.