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

Leyre Gravina, Amets Jauregi, Irrintzi Fernández-Aedo, Julia Díez, Joel Gittelsohn, Uriyoan Colón-Ramos and Manuel Franco
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Leyre Gravina: Department of Nursing I, Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940 Leioa, Spain
Amets Jauregi: Department of Nursing I, Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940 Leioa, Spain
Irrintzi Fernández-Aedo: Department of Nursing I, Faculty of Medicine and Nursing, University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), 48940 Leioa, Spain
Julia Díez: Public Health and Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, 28871 Madrid, Spain
Joel Gittelsohn: Center for Human Nutrition, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA
Uriyoan Colón-Ramos: Department of Global Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, George Washington University, Washington, DC 20052, USA
Manuel Franco: Public Health and Epidemiology Research Group, School of Medicine, University of Alcalá, 28871 Madrid, Spain

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 19, 1-15

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.

Keywords: urban health; food environment; photovoice; participatory action research; inequities; Spain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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