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

NutritioninsecurityamongurbanpoorinmodernizingAsianmetropolisesisacriticalissue.ItiswellrecognizedthatinurbanAsiathepoorarefoodinsecure.AcrossAsiathefoodretailenvironmentistransformingrapidly,inwhichsupermarketsincreasinglyreplacetraditionalfoodvending,likemarketsandstreetvendorsthattheurbanpoordependupon.Thequestionis,howthesetransformationsimpactthedietsoftheurbanpoor?Whatdrivestheirfoodchoice?Whataretheirdailyshoppingpracticesandhowdoesthataffecttheirdietaryintake?Toinvestigatethis,wedevelopedacross-disciplinarynutritionandsocialpracticesstudywithasequentialquan-titative-qualitativemixed-methoddesign.BuildingonempiricalevidencefromHanoi,Vietnam,thestudylinks(i) food choice and measured dietary intake, with (ii) food retail environment, through (iii) food shoppingpracticesandpreferencesof400womenofreproductiveagewithinthecontextof(iv)theirtransformativeurbanlifestyles. Methods included are a retail census with GPS coordinates to map the food retail environment, ahouseholdsurvey,a24-hdietrecall,multi-generationhouseholdinterviewsandshoppingtrips.Wedemonstratethat integrated sociological and nutritional perspectives are productive in rapidly generating evidence tocomprehendthecomplextrade-offsbetweenfoodsafetyandnutritionineverydayfoodconsumptionpractices.Wedescribeandreflectonourtheoreticalmixofdietaryintakeandsocialpracticesresearch,andourholisticmixedmethodapproachwhichbesidescombiningquantitativeandqualitativemethods,alsovoicestheurbanpoorfirsthand