Dietary changes in African urban households in response to currency devaluation

Objective To investigate the effects of currency devaluation on dietary change and nutritional vulnerability of poor households in two African capital cities. Design A qualitative study based on 120 semistructured individual interviews and four focus group discussions in each city. Setting Dakar, Senegal (western Africa) and Brazzaville, Congo (central Africa). Subjects All of the subjects were randomly selected women from modest or poor households, who spoke the local common language and were responsible for household meal preparation. Only those likely to restrict the dynamic of focus group discussions (because of language, age or education) were excluded. Results Changes were found in meal preparation characteristics (frequency, sharing pattern) and meal composition. There was frequent depletion of fat and vegetable contents in meals, frequent elimination of desserts and even the elimination of one daily meal. These changes specifically affected economically disadvantaged and socially isolated households, and those headed by women. Other changes were the reduction in the size of consumption units and the development of neighbourhood-specific street food – which has been a growing trend in Brazzaville since the outset of the economic crisis but is more recent in Dakar. Conclusions If lasting, these changes pose a dual health risk, i.e. reducing dietary diversity and altering the bacteriological quality of prepared meals. In addition, attempts to reduce the consumption units were found to upset community ties that bind these societies

Business · Consumption (sociology · Currency · Devaluation · Dietary diversity · Disadvantaged · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental health · Focus group · Food security · Geography · Livelihood · Meal · Socioeconomics · Sociology · Vulnerability (computing · Child Nutrition and Water Access · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Medicine · Obesity, Physical Activity, Diet

• The Food, Fuel, and Financial Crises Affect the Urban and Rural Poor Disproportionately

  Open Access•Marie T Ruel, James Leo Garrett et al.•The Journal of Nutrition•2010

  Incluir item

• High Food Prices and the Global Financial Crisis Have Reduced Access to Nutritious Food and Worsened Nutritional Status and Health

  Open Access•Henk-Jan Brinkman, Saskia de Pee et al.•The Journal of Nutrition•2010

  Incluir item

• Uncultivated plants and livelihood support –a case study from the Chepang people of Nepal

  Open Access•Kamal Aryal, Åke Berg et al.•Ethnobotany Research and…•2009

  Incluir item

• Bibliography of papers from studies undertaken in Africa and published in Public Health Nutrition, 1998 to date

  Open Access•N Darmon, M Khlat et al.•Public Health Nutrition•2005

  Incluir item

• Food beliefs and practices in urban poor communities in Accra

  Open Access•Sandra Boatemaa, Delali Margaret Badasu et al.•BMC Public Health•2018

  Incluir item

• Macroeconomic determinants of child mortality in low and lower-middle-income nations

  Open Access•Pasan Anjana Samarawickrama, G W J Sriyantha Fernando et al.•International Journal of…•2025

  Incluir item

• Colonisation, the New World Order, and the eradication of traditional food habits in East Africa

  Open Access•Verena Raschke, Bobby Cheema et al.•Public Health Nutrition•2008

  Incluir item

• Trade liberalisation and the nutrition transition

  Open Access•Anne Marie Thow•Public Health Nutrition•2009

  Incluir item

• Dietary Westernisation

  Open Access•Ulla Uusitalo, Jeffery Sobal et al.•Public Health Nutrition•2005

  Incluir item

• Secular trends in low birth weight and child undernutrition in West Africa

  Open Access•Duah Dwomoh, Christian Sewor et al.•Public Health Nutrition•2022

  Incluir item

• Debt/growth infrastructures

  Kathryn Furlong•Economy and Society•2025

  Incluir item

• Food variety—a good indicator of nutritional adequacy of the diet? A case study from an urban area in Mali, West Africa

  Open Access•Anne Hatløy, A Hatloy et al.•European Journal of Clinical…•1998

  Incluir item

• Qualitative Data Analysis in Health Psychology

  Toby Ro Newton-John, Toby Newton‐john•Qualitative Data Analysis in…•2018

  Incluir item

• Assessment of dietary intake at home and outside the home in Bamako (Mali)

  Mohamed Ag Bendech, Michel Chauliac et al.•Ecology of Food and Nutrition•1998

  Incluir item

• Food bowl division and social change

  Susan Beckerleg•Ecology of Food and Nutrition•1995

  Incluir item

• Impacts of devaluation on Senegalese households

  Open Access•Valerie Kelly, Valerie A Kelly et al.•Food Policy•1995

  Incluir item

• Famine and household coping strategies

  Open Access•Jane Corbett•World Development•1988

  Incluir item

• Household Food Strategies in Response to Seasonality and Famine

  Open Access•Richard Longhurst•IDS Bulletin•1986

  Incluir item

• Living on the edge

  Open Access•Darna L Dufour, Lisa K Staten et al.•American Journal of Physical…•1997

  Incluir item

• The household production of nutrition

  Open Access•Margaret E Bentley, Gretel H Pelto•Social Science & Medicine•1991

  Incluir item

• Women's strategies to alleviate nutritional stress in a rural African society

  Open Access•Gillian R Bentley, Robert Aunger et al.•Social Science & Medicine•1999

  Incluir item