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Dietary changes in African urban households in response to currency devaluation: foreseeable risks for health and nutrition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2007

Thierry Fouéré ,
Bernard Maire ,
Francis Delpeuch ,
Yves Martin-Prével ,
Félicité Tchibindat  and
Guy Adoua-Oyila
Thierry Fouéré
Affiliation:
Nutrition Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nutrition, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 911 Avenue d'Agropolis, 34032 Montpellier Cedex 1, France
Bernard Maire
Affiliation:
Nutrition Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nutrition, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 911 Avenue d'Agropolis, 34032 Montpellier Cedex 1, France
Francis Delpeuch*
Affiliation:
Nutrition Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nutrition, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 911 Avenue d'Agropolis, 34032 Montpellier Cedex 1, France
Yves Martin-Prével
Affiliation:
Nutrition Unit, WHO Collaborating Centre for Nutrition, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 911 Avenue d'Agropolis, 34032 Montpellier Cedex 1, France
Félicité Tchibindat
Affiliation:
Unité de Recherche en Nutrition et Alimentation Humaines, BP 15238, Brazzaville, Congo
Guy Adoua-Oyila
Affiliation:
Bureau d'Etudes et Enquêtes, BP 9146, Talangaï, Brazzaville, Congo
*
*Corresponding author: Email [email protected]
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Abstract

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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.

Keywords

Dietary changesDevaluationUrban householdsQualitative studyNutritionVulnerable groupsAfrica
Type
Research Article
Information
Public Health Nutrition , Volume 3 , Issue 3 , September 2000 , pp. 293 - 301
Copyright
Copyright © CABI Publishing 2000

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