Blog A journey through adolescents’ food environments in Vietnam: Innovative research using participatory video making
What can we learn about food environments from an adolescent’s perspective? In Vietnam, the rapidly changing food environment—shaped by globalization, urbanization, economic growth, and other factors—has led to changes in dietary patterns and heightened the risk of malnutrition among adolescents. These transformations have notably led to the increased availability and consumption of ultra-processed foods, which is likely to have adverse dietary and health implications.
What can we learn about food environments from an adolescent’s perspective?
The CGIAR Research Initiative on Sustainable Healthy Diets through Food Systems Transformation (SHiFT) seeks to address these issues by stimulating both the demand for and supply of sustainable nutritious foods. In 2023, researchers from the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT and the National Institute of Nutrition of Vietnam launched activities aimed at co-creating interventions to enhance food environments and foster the adoption of sustainable healthy diets among adolescents. Their primary objectives are to document adolescents’ perceptions of their food environments, identify the main challenges and opportunities for accessing and consuming sustainable healthy diets, and co-design community action plans to enhance these food environments for better diets.
The first stage of this research focused on understanding adolescents' perceptions of their food environments through participatory video-making. This initial stage provided insights into how adolescents perceive and interact with their food environments. The study was conducted in three districts: Moc Chau (rural), Dong Anh (peri-urban), and Dong Da (urban). It involved 54 adolescents (ages 15–17 years) from selected public schools, with a balanced representation of boys and girls.
