Residents’ Insights on Their Local Food Environment and Dietary Behaviors: A Cross-City Comparison Using Photovoice in Spain

Abstract

Perceptions of local food environments and the ability of citizens to engage in participatory research may vary, even if participants share similar cultural and socioeconomic contexts. In this study, we aimed to describe participants’ narratives about their local food environment in two cities in Spain. We used the participatory methodology of Photovoice to engage participants in Madrid (n = 24) and Bilbao (n = 17) who took and discussed photographs about their local food environment (Madrid; n = 163 and Bilbao; n = 70). Common themes emerged across both cities (food insecurity, poverty, use of public spaces for eating and social gathering, cultural diversity and overconsumption of unhealthy foods); however, in Bilbao citizens perceived that there was sufficient availability of healthy foods despite that living in impoverished communities. Photovoice was a useful tool to engage participating citizens to improve their local food environments in both cities. This new approach allowed for a photovoice cross-city comparison that could be useful to fully understand the complexity and diversity of residents’ perceptions regardless of their place of residence.

Citizen science approaches to crowdsourcing food environment data: A scoping review of the literature

“…A majority of included studies reported on crowdsourcing food environment data in the United States of America (USA) (n = 24), 18,19, with studies also conducted in Canada (n = 7), [45][46][47][48][49][50][51] Spain (n = 5), [52][53][54][55] Australia (n = 3), [56][57][58][59] South Africa (n = 1), 60 Colombia (n = 1), 61 Brazil (n = 1), 62 and Nigeria (n = 1). 63 Photovoice techniques were the most employed methodological approach (n = 25 studies), [26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]42,[45][46][47][48][49][51][52][53][54][55]58,60 commonly used to understand overall access to healthy food. Fewer studies made purpose-built apps to collect price or nutritional composition data at scale (n = 3 studies).…”

Properties of the Spanish Version of the Place Standard Tool

“…The combination of assessment tools related to environments with other instruments that focus greater attention on analyzing how lifestyles are affected by specific characteristics of neighborhoods or municipalities [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ] makes it easier to identify which factors of the social, physical, and economic contexts require effective and concrete strategies aimed at improving the health and well-being of the affected community.…”

Photovoice tresna elikadura-ingurunearen azterketa kualitatiborako

“…Horrela, partaideak ikertzaile nagusi bilakatzen dira, eta beraz, ikertzaileen eta partaideen arteko aldea murrizten da [22,23]. Photovoice metodologia aldez aurretik erabilia izan da elikaduraingurunea ikuspegi komunitario batetik ikertzeko [24][25][26].…”

“…Azkenik, talde-laginaren tamaina txikia da, baina Photovoice metodologia talde-eztabaidetan erabiltzeko parte-hartzaileen kopurua egokia da [32]. Metodologia hau beste maila sozio-ekonomikoa duen auzo baten garatuz gero, emaitzak beste era batekoak izango liratekeela suposa dezakegu, horrela adierazten baitute hainbat ikerketek [25,26].…”