Urban physical food environments drive dietary behaviours in Ghana and Kenya: A photovoice study.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Pradeilles R
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8520917 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Urban physical food environments drive dietary behaviours in Ghana and Kenya: A photovoice study.
Pradeilles Rebecca R Irache Ana A Wanjohi Milkah N MN Holdsworth Michelle M Laar Amos A Zotor Francis F Tandoh Akua A Klomegah Senam S Graham Fiona F Muthuri Stella K SK Kimani-Murage Elizabeth W EW Coleman Nathaniel N Green Mark A MA Osei-Kwasi Hibbah Araba HA Bohr Marco M Rousham Emily K EK Asiki Gershim G Akparibo Robert R Mensah Kobby K Aryeetey Richmond R Bricas Nicolas N Griffiths Paula P
Health & place 20210807
We identified factors in the physical food environment that influence dietary behaviours among low-income dwellers in three African cities (Nairobi, Accra, Ho). We used Photovoice with 142 males/females (≥13 years). In the neighbourhood environment, poor hygiene, environmental sanitation, food contamination and adulteration were key concerns. Economic access was perceived as a major barrier to accessing nutritionally safe and healthy foods. Home gardening supplemented household nutritional needs ...[more]
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Project description:ObjectiveTo identify factors influencing dietary behaviours in urban food environments in Africa and identify areas for future research.DesignWe systematically reviewed published/grey literature (protocol CRD4201706893). Findings were compiled into a map using a socio-ecological model on four environmental levels: individual, social, physical and macro.SettingUrban food environments in Africa.ParticipantsStudies involving adolescents and adults (11-70 years, male/female).ResultsThirty-nine studies were included (six adolescent, fifteen adolescent/adult combined and eighteen adult). Quantitative methods were most common (twenty-eight quantitative, nine qualitative and two mixed methods). Studies were from fifteen African countries. Seventy-seven factors influencing dietary behaviours were identified, with two-thirds at the individual level (45/77). Factors in the social (11/77), physical (12/77) and macro (9/77) environments were investigated less. Individual-level factors that specifically emerged for adolescents included self-esteem, body satisfaction, dieting, spoken language, school attendance, gender, body composition, pubertal development, BMI and fat mass. Studies involving adolescents investigated social environment-level factors more, for example, sharing food with friends. The physical food environment was more commonly explored in adults, for example, convenience/availability of food. Macro-level factors associated with dietary behaviours were food/drink advertising, religion and food prices. Factors associated with dietary behaviour were broadly similar for men and women.ConclusionsThe dominance of studies exploring individual-level factors suggests a need for research to explore how social, physical and macro-level environments drive dietary behaviours of adolescents and adults in urban Africa. More studies are needed for adolescents and men, and studies widening the geographical scope to encompass all African countries.
| S-EPMC7116038 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveTo explore communities' perspectives on the factors in the social food environment that influence dietary behaviours in African cities.DesignA qualitative study using participatory photography (Photovoice). Participants took and discussed photographs representing factors in the social food environment that influence their dietary behaviours. Follow-up in-depth interviews allowed participants to tell the 'stories' of their photographs. Thematic analysis was conducted, using data-driven and theory-driven (based on the socio-ecological model) approaches.SettingThree low-income areas of Nairobi (n 48) in Kenya and Accra (n 62) and Ho (n 32) in Ghana.ParticipantsAdolescents and adults, male and female aged ≥13 years.ResultsThe 'people' who were most commonly reported as influencers of dietary behaviours within the social food environment included family members, friends, health workers and food vendors. They mainly influenced food purchase, preparation and consumption, through (1) considerations for family members' food preferences, (2) considerations for family members' health and nutrition needs, (3) social support by family and friends, (4) provision of nutritional advice and modelling food behaviour by parents and health professionals, (5) food vendors' services and social qualities.ConclusionsThe family presents an opportunity for promoting healthy dietary behaviours among family members. Peer groups could be harnessed to promote healthy dietary behaviours among adolescents and youth. Empowering food vendors to provide healthier and safer food options could enhance healthier food sourcing, purchasing and consumption in African low-income urban communities.
| S-EPMC9989710 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundFood safety is integral to food security and is increasingly becoming a significant concern in the urban areas of Africa, which are rapidly growing in population. In the case of Ghana, many urban households depend on traditional open-air markets for most of their food needs. However, these urban food markets also depend on domestic food supply chains, which are prone to risks, including poor hygiene and sanitation and weather seasonality. Food safety compliance has associated costs which increase the unit cost of food products. Thus, higher food price is a risk factor to food availability and accessibility-fundamental pillars of food security.MethodWe use food microbial data and food retail data from food market surveys in major cities in Ghana to assess the safety of selected fresh food commodities and how retailers handle the food products they sell. Additionally, based on a two-wave balanced panel household data, we used fixed effects Poisson and Correlated Random Effects (CRE) Probit models to estimate the effect of weather seasonality on the incidence of diarrhoea and urban household dietary diversity score (HDDS). A final sample of 609 households and 565 market respondents participated in the study.ResultsOur findings show that selected food samples tested positive for Staphylococcus aureus and E.coli and had aflatoxin B1 levels above 5.0 ppb. Additionally, the household incidence of diarrhoea/vomiting, a proxy for food safety status, is higher in the dry season. In the dry season, the household incidence of diarrhoea/vomiting increases on average by a probability of 38% points compared to the rainy season. Regarding HDDS, the average HDDS is 7.3; however, we did not find the effect of seasonality on HDDS to be significant.ConclusionsAlthough urban food availability and household dietary diversity are not challenges for many urban households, food safety is a challenge in the major food markets in Ghanaian cities and is associated with weather seasonality. Foods available in traditional open-air markets are not always safe for consumption, undermining households' food security. Weak enforcement of food safety regulations contributes to the food safety challenges in Ghanaian urban food markets.
| S-EPMC10962103 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Evidence on the individual-level drivers of dietary behaviours in deprived urban contexts in Africa is limited. Understanding how to best inform the development and delivery of interventions to promote healthy dietary behaviours is needed. As noncommunicable diseases account for over 40% of deaths in Ghana, the country has reached an advanced stage of nutrition transition. The aim of this study was to identify individual-level factors (biological, demographic, cognitive, practices) influencing dietary behaviours among adolescent girls and women at different stages of the reproductive life course in urban Ghana with the goal of building evidence to improve targeted interventions. Qualitative Photovoice interviews (n = 64) were conducted in two urban neighbourhoods in Accra and Ho with adolescent girls (13-14 years) and women of reproductive age (15-49 years). Data analysis was both theory- and data-driven to allow for emerging themes. Thirty-seven factors, across four domains within the individual-level, were identified as having an influence on dietary behaviours: biological (n = 5), demographic (n = 8), cognitions (n = 13) and practices (n = 11). Several factors emerged as facilitators or barriers to healthy eating, with income/wealth (demographic); nutrition knowledge/preferences/risk perception (cognitions); and cooking skills/eating at home/time constraints (practices) emerging most frequently. Pregnancy/lactating status (biological) influenced dietary behaviours mainly through medical advice, awareness and willingness to eat foods to support foetal/infant growth and development. Many of these factors were intertwined with the wider food environment, especially concerns about the cost of food and food safety, suggesting that interventions need to account for individual-level as well as wider environmental drivers of dietary behaviours.
| S-EPMC9480960 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundObesity and nutrition-related non-communicable diseases (NR-NCDs) are increasing throughout Africa, driven by urbanisation and changing food environments. Policy action has been limited - and influenced by high income countries. Socio-economic/political environments of African food systems must be considered in order to understand what policy might work to prevent NR-NCDs, for whom, and under what circumstances.MethodsA realist synthesis of five policy areas to support healthier food consumption in urban Africa: regulating trade/foreign investment; regulating health/nutrition claims/labels; setting composition standards for processed foods; restricting unhealthy food marketing; and school food policy. We drew upon Ghana and Kenya to contextualise the evidence base. Programme theories were generated by stakeholders in Ghana/Kenya. A two-stage search interrogated MEDLINE, Web of Science and Scopus. Programme theories were tested and refined to produce a synthesised model.ResultsThe five policies operate through complex, inter-connected pathways moderated by global-, national- and local contexts. Consumers and the food environment interact to enable/disable food accessibility, affordability and availability. Consumer relationships with each other and retailers are important contextual influences, along with political/ economic interests, stakeholder alliances and globalized trade. Coherent laws/regulatory frameworks and government capacities are fundamental across all policies. The increasing importance of convenience is shaped by demographic and sociocultural drivers. Awareness of healthy diets mediates food consumption through comprehension, education, literacy and beliefs. Contextualised data (especially food composition data) and inter-sectoral collaboration are critical to policy implementation.ConclusionEvidence indicates that coherent action across the five policy areas could positively influence the healthiness of food environments and consumption in urban Africa. However, drivers of (un)healthy food environments and consumption reflect the complex interplay of socio-economic and political drivers acting at diverse geographical levels. Stakeholders at local, national, and global levels have important, yet differing, roles to play in ensuring healthy food environments and consumption in urban Africa.
| S-EPMC9309963 | biostudies-literature
Project description:This study adapted Photovoice methodology for younger participants to better understand the perceptions of urban African American youth on their food environments and diets. Youth (n = 17, ages 10-13 years) photographed and described, using novel narrative-based activities, the myriad places they regularly acquired "junk food" from environments saturated with such but differed in their assessments of the availability and desirability of more nutritious alternative foods. Youth often discussed specific foods as well as peers and adults in their lives as either entirely "healthy" or "unhealthy." This concrete thinking should be considered when designing messaging strategies to improve diets in similar populations. Overall, Photovoice is an engaging and effective method to engage youth in efforts to improve food environments and diets.
| S-EPMC5844507 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundHealthy and sustainable dietary practices offer a possible solution to competing tensions between health and environmental sustainability, particularly as global food systems transition. To encourage such dietary practices, it is imperative to understand existing dietary practices and factors influencing these dietary practices. The aim of this study was to identify multi-level factors in lived rural and urban Ugandan food environments that influence existing dietary practices among women of reproductive age (WRA).MethodsA mixed methods study was conducted. Multiple correspondence analysis followed by hierarchical cluster analysis were performed on dietary data collected among a sample (n = 73) of Ugandan WRA in Kampala (urban) and Wakiso (rural) districts to elicit dietary clusters. Dietary clusters, which were labelled as dietary typologies based on environmental impact and nutrition transition considerations, were reflective of dietary practices. Following this, a smaller sample of WRA (n = 18) participated in a Photovoice exercise and in-depth interviews to identify factors in their social, physical, socio-cultural and macro-level environments influencing their enactment of the identified dietary typologies, and therefore dietary practices.ResultsFour dietary typologies emerged: 'urban, low-impact, early-stage transitioners', 'urban, medium-impact, mid-stage transitioners', 'rural, low-impact, early-stage transitioners' and 'rural, low-impact, traditionalists'. Although experienced somewhat differently, the physical environment (access, availability and cost), social networks (parents, other family members and friends) and socio-cultural environment (dietary norms) were cross-cutting influences among both urban and rural dietary typologies. Seasonality (macro-environment) directly influenced consumption of healthier and lower environmental impact, plant-based foods among the two rural dietary typology participants, while seasonality and transportation intersected to influence consumption of healthier and lower environmental impact, plant-based foods among participants in the two urban dietary typologies.ConclusionParticipants displayed a range of dietary typologies, and therefore dietary practices. Family provides an avenue through which interventions aimed at encouraging healthier and lower environmental impact dietary practices can be targeted. Home gardens, urban farming and improved transportation could address challenges in availability and access to healthier, lower environmental impact plant-based foods among urban WRA.
| S-EPMC7690007 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundThere is a dearth of studies on the effects of the neighbourhood environment on adults' cognitive function. We examined how interrelated aspects of the built and natural neighbourhood environment, including air pollution, correlate with adults' cognitive function, and the roles of physical activity and sedentary behaviours in these associations.MethodsWe used data from 4,141 adult urban dwellers who participated in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle 3 study on socio-demographic characteristics, neighbourhood self-selection, physical activity and sedentary behaviours, and cognitive function. Neighbourhood environmental characteristics included population density, intersection density, non-commercial land use mix, and percentages of commercial land, parkland and blue space, all within 1 km residential buffers. We also calculated annual mean concentrations of NO2 and PM2.5. Generalised additive mixed models informed by directed acyclic graphs were used to estimate the total, direct and indirect effects of environmental attributes on cognitive functions and the joint-significance test was used to examine indirect effects via behaviours.ResultsIn the total effects models, population density and percentage of parkland were positively associated with cognitive function. A positive association of PM2.5 with memory was also observed. All neighbourhood environmental attributes were directly and/or indirectly related to cognitive functions via other environmental attributes and/or physical activity but not sedentary behaviours. Engagement in transportation walking and gardening frequency partially mediated the positive effects of the neighbourhood environment on cognitive function, while frequency of transportation walking mediated the negative effects.ConclusionsIn the context of a low-density country like Australia, denser urban environments with access to parkland may benefit residents' cognitive health by providing opportunities for participation in a diversity of activities. A more fine-grained characterisation of the neighbourhood environment may be necessary to tease out the negative and positive impacts of inter-related characteristics of urban neighbourhood environments on cognitive function.
| S-EPMC8705462 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveTo explore determinants of dietary and physical activity behaviours among women of reproductive age.DesignData were collected through focus group discussions (FGD). The FGD guide was based on a modified theoretical framework; theory of planned behaviour was incorporated with constructs of health belief model, precaution adoption process model, social cognitive and social support theory. Discussions were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed thematically.SettingKampala, Uganda.ParticipantsWomen were categorised into young adults; 18-34 years and adults; 35-45 years.ResultsSeparate FGD with independent participants were conducted for dietary and physical activity behaviours until data saturation was achieved. Six FGD were conducted per behaviour. Determinants of dietary behaviours at intra-individual level included gaps in food skills, knowledge and self-efficacy, food safety concerns, convenience, finances and physiological satisfaction. The social-cultural norms were relationship between vegetable consumption and low social status, consideration of fruits as a snack for children and not food and habitual orientation towards carbohydrate foods. At environment level, social networks and increased availability of energy-dense, nutrient poor, street and processed foods influence dietary behaviour. For physical activity, intra-individual determinants were knowledge gaps and self-efficacy, while socio-cultural norms included gender stereotypes. Home (limited space and sedentary entertainment like social media and TV) and physical environment (cheap motorised transportation) influence physical activity.ConclusionThe existing cultural beliefs promote dietary and physical activity behaviours which are divergent from healthy recommendations. Therefore, a comprehensive intervention is needed to address socio-cultural misconceptions, financial and time limitations in urban Uganda.
| S-EPMC10195302 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveSystematic reviews investigating associations between objective measures of the food environment and dietary behaviours or health outcomes have not established a consistent evidence base. The present paper aims to synthesise qualitative evidence regarding the influence of local food environments on food and purchasing behaviours.DesignA systematic review in the form of a qualitative thematic synthesis.SettingUrban localities.SubjectsAdults.ResultsFour analytic themes were identified from the review including community and consumer nutrition environments, other environmental factors and individual coping strategies for shopping and purchasing decisions. Availability, accessibility and affordability were consistently identified as key determinants of store choice and purchasing behaviours that often result in less healthy food choices within community nutrition environments. Food availability, quality and food store characteristics within consumer nutrition environments also greatly influenced in-store purchases. Individuals used a range of coping strategies in both the community and consumer nutrition environments to make optimal purchasing decisions, often within the context of financial constraints.ConclusionsFindings from the current review add depth and scope to quantitative literature and can guide ongoing theory, interventions and policy development in food environment research. There is a need to investigate contextual influences within food environments as well as individual and household socio-economic characteristics that contribute to the differing use of and views towards local food environments. Greater emphasis on how individual and environmental factors interact in the food environment field will be key to developing stronger understanding of how environments can support and promote healthier food choices.
| S-EPMC10261492 | biostudies-literature