Identifying Opportunities for Strategic Policy Design to Address the Double Burden of Malnutrition through Healthier Retail Food: Protocol for South East Asia Obesogenic Food Environment (SEAOFE) Study.

Sirinya Phulkerd,Mohd Jamil Sameeha,Adila Fahmida Saptari,Vanessa T Marquez,Teeranong Sakulsri,Yong Kang Cheah,Anne-Marie Thow,Bee Koon Poh,Helen Trevena,Elaine Q Borazon,Cut Novianti Rachmi,Che Aniza Che Wel,Natjera Thongcharoenchupong

doi:10.3390/ijerph19010528

Abstract

Effective policies that address both the supply and demand dimensions of access to affordable, healthy foods are required for tackling malnutrition in South East Asia. This paper presents the Protocol for the South East Asia Obesogenic Food Environment (SEAOFE) study, which is designed to analyze the retail food environment, consumers’ and retailers’ perspectives regarding the retail food environment, and existing policies influencing food retail in four countries in South East Asia in order to develop evidence-informed policy recommendations. This study was designed as a mixed-methods sequential explanatory approach. The country sites are Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The proposed study consists of four phases. Phase One describes the characteristics of the current retail food environment using literature and data review. Phase Two interprets consumer experience in the retail food environment in selected urban poor communities using a consumer-intercept survey. This phase also assesses the retail food environment by adapting an in-store audit tool previously validated in higher-income countries. Phase Three identifies factors influencing food retailer decisions, perceptions, and attitudes toward food retail policies using semi-structured interviews with selected retailers. Phase Four recommends changes in the retail food environment using policy analysis and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders. For the analysis of the quantitative data, descriptive statistics and multiple regression will be used, and thematic analysis will be used to process the qualitative data. This study will engage stakeholders throughout the research process to ensure that the design and methods used are sensitive to the local context.

Highlights

Countries in South East Asia (SEA) are experiencing all forms of malnutrition due to a rapid dietary transition that is occurring throughout the region [1]
The research integrates approaches from public health nutrition, business, and political science to assess the multidisciplinary challenges of food retail policy for improving nutrition
An international advisory group for the study consists of members with expertise in food retail, food policy, population nutrition, and research methods

Summary

Introduction

Countries in South East Asia (SEA) are experiencing all forms of malnutrition due to a rapid dietary transition that is occurring throughout the region [1]. Report for South East Asia shows that, prevalence of stunting has decreased, it remains high (38.5% to 24.7%), while the prevalence of overweight has more than doubled (3.2% to 7.5%) between 2000 and 2019 among children aged below 5 years [2]. This double burden of malnutrition, which refers to the coexistence of under- and over-nutrition in the population, occurs not just among children and in other age groups [3]. Policy has failed to shift from a focus on access to calories to improving access to foods of higher nutritional quality and reducing access to, and marketing of unhealthy foods

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Conclusion