Abstract:
We study the relationship between the food environment (FE) and the food purchase patterns, dietary intakes,
and nutritional status of individuals in peri-urban Tanzania. In Africa, the prevailing high density of informal
vendors creates challenges to characterizing the FE. We present a protocol and tool developed as part of the Diet,
Environment, and Choices of positive living (DECIDE) study to measure characteristics of the FE. We mapped
6627 food vendors in a peri-urban settlement of Dar es Salaam, of which over 60% were semi-formal and
informal (mobile) vendors. We compute and compare four FE metrics inspired by landscape ecology—density,
dispersion, diversity, and dominance—to better understand how the informal food environment relates to food
purchase patterns, diets, and nutritional status among households with persons living with human immunodeficiency
virus (PLHIV).
