ArticleAdvances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.)2020
Food Environment Research in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Scoping Review.
Article in Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 146 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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Who cites it
146 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Obesogenicity of food in the informal food retail environment of low- and middle-income countries: a systematic review.BMJ global health · 2025Pooled it
- The Effectiveness of Partnerships With Commercial Actors to Improve Food Environments: A Systematic Review.Obesity reviews : an official journal of the International Association for the Study of Obesity · 2025Pooled it
- The rural food environment and its association with diet, nutrition status, and health outcomes in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs): a systematic review.BMC public health · 2025Pooled it
- Food environment research in Canada: a rapid review of methodologies and measures deployed between 2010 and 2021.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2024Pooled it
- Associations of the built environment with type 2 diabetes in Asia: a systematic review.BMJ open · 2023Pooled it
- Factors affecting fruit and vegetable consumption and purchase behavior of adults in sub-Saharan Africa: A rapid review.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Pooled it
- The influence of the urban food environment on diet, nutrition and health outcomes in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review.BMJ global health · 2021Pooled it
- Effectiveness of school-based nutrition interventions in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.Public health nutrition · 2020Pooled it
- Measurement Methods Used to Assess the School Food Environment: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- Inequities in Children's Food Environment: A Comparison between Slum and Non-slum Settings in Urban Bangladesh.Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine · 2026Article
- "It's where I buy lunch or anything that I want to buy": a participatory photo elicitation study on adolescents' experience of food choice and environment in Kisumu, Kenya.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2026Article
- Quantifying the role of nitrogen in achieving global Sustainable Development Goals.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Food Insecurity and Diet Quality Among Low-Income Women in Dhaka City Amidst COVID-19 and the Ukraine Crisis: A Cross-Sectional Study.Health science reports · 2026Article
- Dietary Patterns and Nutritional Status of Urban School-Children and Adult Females of Reproductive Age in Côte d'Ivoire.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- Food Is Always Close By: An Assessment of the Healthiness of the Adolescent Home and School Food Environments in Northern Vietnam.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- Adapting Global Dietary Recommendation Indices to Assess Retail Food Environment Quality: Spatial Insights from Rural and Urban Kenya.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- Unveiling Place-Based Effects at Scale: A Multiscale Geographically Weighted Regression of Food Deserts and Cardiovascular Risk in Chile.Epidemiologia (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- A systematic scoping review of urban food environment research, interventions, and measurement approaches in eight low- and middle-income countries.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2026Article
- Resilience and vulnerabilities of urban food environments in the Asia-Pacific region.Maternal & child nutrition · 2026Article
- The Food Environment Perceptions Survey: development and piloting of a survey instrument in India and Cambodia to assess consumers' interactions with diverse food environments.Public health nutrition · 2026Article
86 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Commented on by
- Commented on by
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Food environment research is increasingly gaining prominence in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, in the absence of a systematic review of the literature, little is known about the emerging body of evidence from these settings. This systematic scoping review aims to address this gap. A systematic search of 6 databases was conducted in December 2017 and retrieved 920 records. In total, 70 peer-reviewed articles met the eligibility criteria and were included. Collectively, articles spanned 22 LMICs, including upper-middle-income countries (n = 49, 70%) and lower-middle-income countries (n = 18, 26%). No articles included low-income countries. Articles featured quantitative (n = 45, 64%), qualitative (n = 17, 24%), and mixed-method designs (n = 11, 8%). Studies analyzed the food environment at national, community, school, and household scales. Twenty-three articles (55%) assessed associations between food environment exposures and outcomes of interest, including diets (n = 14), nutrition status (n = 13), and health (n = 1). Food availability was associated with dietary outcomes at the community and school scales across multiple LMICs, although associations varied by vendor type. Evidence regarding associations between the food environment and nutrition and health outcomes was inconclusive. The paucity of evidence from high-quality studies is a severe limitation, highlighting the critical need for improved study designs and standardized methods and metrics. Future food environment research must address low-income and lower-middle-income countries, and include the full spectrum of dietary, nutrition, and health outcomes. Improving the quality of food environment research will be critical to the design of feasible, appropriate, and effective interventions to improve public health nutrition in LMICs.
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