Table 1 Characteristics of included studies (n=45)
Group; exploring…. | Author (year) | Aim | Study Design and method | Participants | How disadvantage measured | Individual, community or organisational focus |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Food insecurity | Douglas et al., (2020) [35] | Explore challenges of food insecure people re health conditions. | Qualitative study. Grounded Theory. Interviews. | Food insecure adults with health conditions (n=20) | Participants in receipt of food aid | Individual |
Douglas et al., (2018) [36] | Capture perspectives of third sector workers delivering food insecurity services | Qualitative part of mixed methods study of food insecurity. Interviews. | Third sector workers (n=25) | Participants worked with people in receipt of food aid. | Individual, some community. | |
Garthwaite et al., (2015) [37] | Explore relationship between ill health and food insecurity | Ethnographic part of larger health inequalities study. Observations, interviews | Adults using food bank, foodbank volunteers (n=42 users, 11 volunteers) | Participants in receipt of food aid. Area IMD. | Individual | |
Harvey (2016) [38] | Understand families' experiences of food insecurity. | Mixed methods. Interviews. | Food insecure families (n=72 parents, 19 children) | Participants in receipt of food aid/previously identified as food insecure. Area with high child poverty rates. | Individual | |
Jolly (2017) [39] | Understand experiences of food poverty for families at risk of destitution. | Practitioner research model. Part of superdiversity study. Interviews. | Parents from families at risk of destitution (n=7) | Participants refugees at risk of destitution. | Individual | |
Knight, O'Connell and Brannen (2018) [40] | Explore experience of food poverty. | Qualitative case study approach. Interviews. | Young people and parents (n=45) | Area child poverty level. | Individual, some community. | |
Laverty (2019) [41] | Explore informal ways young people manage food insecurity. | Qualitative ethnographic study. Observations, focus groups. | Young people (n not stated) | Area IMD | Community | |
Blake (2019) [42] | Consider relationship between poverty and food insecurity and impact on community self-organisation. | Qualitative case study. Interviews and observations. | Community members and community organisation representatives (n= at least 41, full number not given) | Area IMD | Community | |
Morares et al., (2021) [43] | Explore lived experience of food insecurity. | Interpretive qualitative research. Part of larger study. Interviews. | Adults experiencing food insecurity (n=24) | Participants in receipt of food aid, high deprivation area (IMD). | Individual | |
Power et al., (2018) [44] | Understand lived experience of food in context of poverty. | Qualitative study. Focus groups, interview. | Pakistani and White British women (n=16) | IMD and health indicators of area plus participants’ house hold work situation. | Individual | |
Power et al., (2020) [45] | Consider food insecurity. | Qualitative phenomenological study. Focus groups, interviews. | Food insecurity service providers, Pakistani and White British women at risk of food insecurity (n=16 women, 9 service providers) | Area IMD | Individual | |
Puddlephatt et al., (2020) [46] | Explore factors influencing food choice in food insecure population. | Qualitative study. Interviews. | Food bank clients (n=24) | Participants in receipt of food aid. | Individual | |
Purdam, Esmail and Garratt (2019) [47] | Explore food insecurity for UK older people (over 50), and experiences of using food banks. | Mixed methods. Case study approach. Interviews. | Food bank users aged 50 -75 years (n=36 service users, 6 service volunteers) | Participants in receipt of food aid. | Individual | |
Pybus et al., (2021) [48] | Explore experiences of food and poverty to build community capacity. | Mixed methods. Co-design and participatory methods. Focus groups, survey. | Adults self-identifying as low income (n=22 for focus groups, 612 for survey) | Participants had low-income | Individual, some community | |
Thompson et al., (2018b) [49] | Explore health and wellbeing challenges of food poverty and professional and organisational response. | Qualitative ethnographic part of wider study. Observations, interviews. | Food bank volunteers and users (n=14 families using food bank, 8 volunteers). Health and social care professionals (n=22) | Participants in receipt of food aid/ running food banks. | Individual | |
Emergency food aid | Douglas et al., (2015) [50] | Provide insight into experience of foodbank use. | Qualitative study. Grounded Theory and ethnographic approaches. Observations and interviews. | Adults using a food bank (n=7) | Participants in receipt of food aid. | Individual. |
Oncini (2021) [51] | Illuminate how food aid organisations responded to COVID - 19 crisis. | Mixed methods. Interviews. | Third sector emergency food provider directors or spokespeople (n=55) | All food banks surveyed | Organisational | |
Purdam et al., (2016) [52] | Examine food aid discourse, demonisation of poverty and experiences of food bank users. | Qualitative ethnography, case study approach. Observations, interviews. | Food bank users (n=34) | Participants in receipt of food aid. | Individual and organisational. | |
Wainwright et al., (2018) [53] | Explore food bank use. | Qualitative study. Interviews. | Food bank users (n=25) | Participants in receipt of food aid. | Individual. | |
Local food environment | Thompson et al., (2018a) [54] | Describe framing of chicken shops, characterise their integration into health. | Qualitative part of wider study. Go-along interviews, focus groups | Parents, children aged 11-15 (n=106) | ‘low income’ neighbourhood | Individual and community |
Townshend (2017) [55] | Understand community impact of clustering of unhealthy shops. | Mixed methods, case study approach. Observations, interviews. | Young people, local politicians (n=4 local politicians, 10 community members) | Deprived areas of city | Community | |
Estrade et al., (2014) [56] | Barriers independent fast food vendors may face when making menus healthier. | Qualitative study of fast food vendors near secondary schools. Interviews. | Fast food managers (n=10) | IMD and proportion of free school meals in area. | Community | |
Healthy diet | Cross-Bardell et al. (2015) [57] | Experiences of strategies for enhancing physical activity and diet. | Qualitative study. Interviews. | Community members of South Asian origin, health professionals (n=34 people of South Asian heritage, 11 health professionals) | Area IMD. | Individual |
Davison (2015) [58] | Understand determinants of food choice and dietary health promotion needs of young people not in education, employment or training. | Explorative qualitative study. Focus groups and interviews | Service providers, young people (n=14 young people, 7 service providers) | Attending Pupil Referral Unit (educational deprivation). | Individual | |
Barton et al. (2011) [59] | Explore food choice and barriers to healthful eating. | Qualitative study, Grounded Theory analysis. Focus groups. | Community members (n=42) | Area IMD | Individual and community | |
Dolan (2014) [60] | Explore men's experiences regarding gender differences and health | Qualitative study, comparative methods with focus on context. Interviews. | Working class men (n=22) | Mix of socioeconomic measures used to identify working class areas. | Individual, some community. | |
Goldthorpe et al., (2018) [61] | Explore parent's experiences of providing healthy diet for pre-school child. | Qualitative study informed by psychological theories. Interviews. | Parents of pre-school children (n=21) | Area IMD | Individual. | |
Grace (2011) [62] | Explore factors influencing lifestyle choice. | Qualitative study. Focus groups, interviews. | Adult members of Bangladeshi community without diabetes (n=70), religious leaders (n=29), health professionals (n=8). | Deprived part of London | Individual. | |
Grant et al., (2018) [63] | Engage with subjective experience of health in pregnancy. | Interpretivist qualitative study. Creative methods, interview. | Pregnant women (n=10) | Participants’ IMD (most deprived quintile) | Individual | |
Hardcastle and Blake (2016) [64] | Explore perceptions underlying food choices. | Qualitative part of larger study, inductive analysis. Interviews. | Parents of child participants of cookery programme (n=16) | Area IMD. | Individual | |
Kahoum et al., (2015) [65] | Explore barriers to dietary choice for parents. Inform intervention development to promote healthier food environment for children. | Qualitative study, inductive analysis. Interviews. | Parents of infants and pregnant mothers (n=96) | Townsend deprivation index. | Individual, some community. | |
Eating and foodwaysa | van Kesteren and Adams (2020) [66] | Use practice theory to explore non-cognitive factors of everyday cooking performances, examine how these may affect healthy eating inequalities. | Mixed methods. Ethnography. Observations, interviews. | Mothers (n=31 via observation and interviews, 310 via survey) | Area IMD. | Individual. |
Sprake et al., (2014) [67] | Insight into nutrient intakes of homeless people, understanding of factors affecting food choice, determine contribution of charitable meal services to overall diet. | Mixed methods. Interviews. | Homeless people accessing charitable meal service (n=12) | Being homeless and receiving charitable meals. | Individual. | |
Wills et al., (2011) [68] | Explain food and eating practices of families with young teenagers. | Qualitative study. Interviews | Teenagers, their parents or grandparents (n=36 teenagers, 35 parents or grandparents) | Area defined by % of children having free school meals. Individual participants; range of socio-economic variables collected. | Individual | |
Lofink (2012) [69] | Examine how micro-environments influence diets. | Qualitative ethnography. Observations, interviews. | British Bangladeshi young people (n=165) | Economically depressed area of London. | Individual and community. | |
Lovelace and Rabiee-Khan (2015) [70] | Explore food choices and understand socioeconomic and environmental influences constraining families. | Qualitative, Grounded Theory approach. Interviews | Mothers of pre-school children (n=11) | Participants had low income (not home owners, receiving income support/healthy start) | Individual and community | |
Clement et al. (2014) [71] | Explore alcohol use in educationally marginalised population | Qualitative study, Grounded Theory analysis. Focus groups, interviews. | Young people, staff members (n=13 young people, 7 staff) | Participants educationally deprived. | Individual | |
Infant feeding | Cook et al. (2021a) [72] | Explore breastfeeding experiences and access barriers to local breastfeeding support services | Qualitative part of larger study. Focus groups. | Mothers (n=63) | Area IMD | Individual |
Cook et al. (2021b) [73] | Examine parents' complementary feeding knowledge beliefs and practices. | Qualitative part of larger study. Focus groups. | Parents (n=110) | Area IMD | Individual | |
Hufton and Raven (2014) [74] | Understand refugee mothers’ infant feeding issues and experiences of their health professionals | Qualitative study. Interviews, focus groups. | Refugee mothers (n=30), health professionals (n=5) | Refugee status. | Individual. | |
Food shopping and choice | Thompson et al., (2013) [75] | Explore how residents of deprived neighbourhood shop for food, how the supermarket environment influences choices. | Qualitative ethnographic part of wider study. Go-along interviews. | Adult neighbourhood residents (n=26) | Area IMD, 30% of population on benefits. | Individual |
Emergency meal provision | Pelham-Burn et al., (2014) [76] | Understand factors affecting composition of charitable meals, determine likely acceptability of possible improvements. | Mixed methods. Interviews. | Kitchen staff at day centre for homeless people (n=2 for interviews) | Study of emergency food provider. | Organisational |
Food’s environmental impact | MacDairmid et al., (2016) [77] | Explore awareness of foods’ environmental impact. | Qualitative study. Focus groups, interviews. | Adults (n=83) | Area IMD | Individual. |
Impact of welfare change | Moffat et al., (2016) [78] | Explore impact of bedroom tax. | Qualitative study, interpretive approach. Interviews, focus groups. | Adult social housing tenants and social housing providers (n=36 tenants, 12 providers) | Area IMD | Individual, some community |
Food involvement. | Jarman et al., (2012) [79] | Explore women with lower educational attainment’s food involvement. | Qualitative study. Focus groups. | Women with young children with low educational attainment (n=28) | Participants educationally deprived. | Individual. |