Dataset Information

A cross-disciplinary mixed-method approach to understand how food retail environment transformations influence food choice and intake among the urban poor: Experiences from Vietnam.

ABSTRACT: Nutrition insecurity among urban poor in modernizing Asian metropolises is a critical issue. It is well recognized that in urban Asia the poor are food insecure. Across Asia the food retail environment is transforming rapidly, in which supermarkets increasingly replace traditional food vending, like markets and street vendors that the urban poor depend upon. The question is, how these transformations impact the diets of the urban poor? What drives their food choice? What are their daily shopping practices and how does that affect their dietary intake? To investigate this, we developed a cross-disciplinary nutrition and social practices study with a sequential quantitative-qualitative mixed-method design. Building on empirical evidence from Hanoi, Vietnam, the study links (i) food choice and measured dietary intake, with (ii) food retail environment, through (iii) food shopping practices and preferences of 400 women of reproductive age within the context of (iv) their transformative urban lifestyles. Methods included are a retail census with GPS coordinates to map the food retail environment, a household survey, a 24-h diet recall, multi-generation household interviews and shopping trips. We demonstrate that integrated sociological and nutritional perspectives are productive in rapidly generating evidence to comprehend the complex trade-offs between food safety and nutrition in everyday food consumption practices. We describe and reflect on our theoretical mix of dietary intake and social practices research, and our holistic mixed method approach which besides combining quantitative and qualitative methods, also voices the urban poor first hand.

SUBMITTER: Wertheim-Heck SCO

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6739597 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A cross-disciplinary mixed-method approach to understand how food retail environment transformations influence food choice and intake among the urban poor: Experiences from Vietnam.

Wertheim-Heck Sigrid C O SCO Raneri Jessica E JE

Appetite 20190713

Nutrition insecurity among urban poor in modernizing Asian metropolises is a critical issue. It is well recognized that in urban Asia the poor are food insecure. Across Asia the food retail environment is transforming rapidly, in which supermarkets increasingly replace traditional food vending, like markets and street vendors that the urban poor depend upon. The question is, how these transformations impact the diets of the urban poor? What drives their food choice? What are their daily shopping ...[more]

PMID: 31310835

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Project description:(1) Background: To date, there are limited data in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that collect, monitor, and evaluate food environments in standardized ways. The development of a pilot survey tool, tailored to LMICs and focused on retail food environments, is necessary for improving public health nutrition. (2) Methods: A novel survey tool was developed and piloted in a sample of village retail food environments (n = 224) in Matiari, Pakistan between October 2020 to April 2021. Villages were randomly selected, and food outlets were surveyed within a 500-m radius from each village center. Descriptive statistics (counts and percentages) were used to describe the characteristics of food outlets and the availability of food. To test whether there was a difference in characteristics or in the mean of number of healthy, unhealthy, and total food items available by village size, a χ2 test or one-way ANOVA was conducted, respectively. (3) Results: In total, 1484 food outlets were surveyed for food accessibility, availability, and promotion across small (n = 54), medium (n = 112), and large villages (n = 58). In small and medium-sized villages, mobile food vendors were the predominant food outlet type (47.8% and 45.1%, respectively), whereas in large villages, corner stores (36%) were more prominent. The mean number of total food items (p < 0.006) and unhealthy food items (p < 0.001) available in food outlets differed by village size. The proportion of food outlets with available fruits, meat and poultry, water, and sugar-sweetened beverages also differed by village size (p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: This study informs the global evidence gap in the current understanding of food environments in various ethnically diverse and dynamic LMICs, and the developed methodology will be useful to other LMICs for measuring and monitoring the food environment, especially among vulnerable population groups. This work complements current national and provincial survey efforts in Pakistan.

Dataset Information

A cross-disciplinary mixed-method approach to understand how food retail environment transformations influence food choice and intake among the urban poor: Experiences from Vietnam.

Publications

A cross-disciplinary mixed-method approach to understand how food retail environment transformations influence food choice and intake among the urban poor: Experiences from Vietnam.

Similar Datasets

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