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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

Equity Focus

This study targets the impact of changes in food retailing on food choices and consumption patterns of the urban poor in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Case Summary

Building on empirical evidence from Hanoi, Vietnam, the project 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. It is a theoretical mix of dietary intake and social practices research, and the holistic mixed method approach which besides combining quantitative and qualitative methods, also voiced the urban poor first hand.

Lessons Learned

• The use of a mixed method approach that integrated qualitative and quantitative methods, and crossed multiple disciplines was able to rapidly deliver evidence. The use of a consultative local stakeholder meeting was effective in validating the results achieved with the
  method, as well as for identifying policy recommendations and actions to improve the existing food safety policy to resolve the social inequity issues, and to provide practical solutions for alleviating some of the tension on the food safety – nutrition burden faced daily by the urban poor.

LINK TO CASE STUDY