Factors influencing dietary behaviours in urban food environments in Africa: a systematic mapping review

Abstract

Objective: To identify factors influencing dietary behaviours in urban food environments in Africa and identify areas for future research. Design: We 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. Setting: Urban food environments in Africa. Participants: Studies involving adolescents and adults (11–70 years, male/female). Results: Thirty-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. Conclusions: The 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.

Factors influencing obesogenic behaviours of adolescent girls and women in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A qualitative evidence synthesis

“…Gender norms were identified as a strong cross‐cutting issue for almost all of the influencing factors. Thus, male perceptions would enrich insights into these societal issues 28 . Only two of the included studies were conducted in low‐income countries, which poses an important gap for future research.…”

The African urban food environment framework for creating healthy nutrition policy and interventions in urban Africa

“…Systematic mapping review . A systematic mapping review [ 13 ] ( Fig 1 - Phase 1.1) of factors associated with dietary behaviours in urban Africa among adolescents and adults (11–70 years) was carried out. The review synthesised data from quantitative and qualitative studies published from 1971 onwards, when the term ‘epidemiological transition’ was first introduced [ 21 ].…”

“…family or peer groups) and physical environments (neighbourhoods that individuals live in, e.g. access to fast food outlets) are poorly understood [ 12 , 13 ]. Stronger evidence is therefore needed in order to characterise the environments in which people live, and how these drive their dietary behaviours.…”

Unhealthy eating practices of city-dwelling Africans in deprived neighbourhoods: Evidence for policy action from Ghana and Kenya

“…Eating practices may also evolve in response to changing contexts ( Jastran et al, 2009 ), such as that accompanying the nutrition transition. Eating practices are shaped by many social, material, economic and cultural factors ( Warde et al, 2007 ; Jastran et al, 2009 ; Southerton et al, 2011 ; Warde 2015 ; Osei-Kwasi et al, 2020 ) in people's food environments and are ‘closely tied to the routines and rhythms of everyday life ' ( Horton et al, 2017 ). Policies and interventions to promote healthier food consumption may be more effective when they address the dynamics of eating practices, which requires an exploration of how food consumption is structured and organised in social practices ( Shove et al, 2012 ), such as the time of day and frequency of eating episodes ( periodicity ), length of eating episodes ( tempo ), and who participants eat with and where ( synchronisation ).…”

“…There is a lack of evidence about how unhealthy food and beverage consumption is embedded in everyday life in African cities, including for the urban poor ( Osei-Kwasi et al, 2020 ). Therefore, the objective of this study was to ascertain how unhealthy food and beverage consumption is embedded in everyday life in deprived areas of two African countries, to identify levers for context relevant policy.…”