Supermarkets and household food acquisition patterns in Vietnam in relation to population demographics and socioeconomic strata: Insights from public data

Food environments in Southeast Asia's emerging economies are rapidly evolving, alongside fast-paced socioeconomic and demographic changes. The widespread expansion of supermarkets and parallel restructuring of traditional markets in Vietnam are likely to impact patterns of household food acquisition. Using provincial-level time series data on the abundance of supermarkets and multiyear household survey data, this paper examines the impact of the differential country-wide presence of supermarkets with indices of food quality and quantity acquired by households. We classified provinces into three clusters based on the number of supermarkets: high (HighSM), medium (MedSM), and low (LowSM). We found that a higher number of supermarkets associated with the exceedable Vietnamese recommendation composition of macronutrients at the household-level, but not food quantity. Households with higher per capita food expenditure in HighSM provinces tended to procure foods with higher protein content and lower shares of fat and carbohydrate as compared to similar households in the others provinces. Ethnic minority households in MedSM clusters obtained food with lower carbohydrate and higher fat:protein ratios in comparison to ethnic majority households. Additionally, larger-sized households in HighSM provinces typically bought foods with higher fat shares than smaller-sized households. In contrast, in MedSM and LowSM provinces, larger-sized households typically procured foods with higher protein and lower fat shares. The diversity of foods obtained by households in MedSM and LowSM provinces decreased over time. Within the Midlands and Northern Mountains Area we observed a decrease in the diversity of food acquired among households in the LowSM clusters. This study elucidates potential impacts of the supermarket expansion on household food baskets. Insights from this study can be used to provide evidences for policy recommendation and to design and target interventions aimed at strengthening food environments to address the challenge of the double burden of malnutrition in the country

Transforming medical education to strengthen the health professional training in Viet Nam: A case study

The competency-based undergraduate curriculum reform at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, Faculty of Medicine (UMP-FM) is detailed and reviewed in reference to the instructional and institutional reforms, and enabling actions recommended by the Lancet 2010 Commission for Health Professional Education. Key objectives are to: revise the overall 6-year curriculum to be more integrated and competency-based; reinforce students’ knowledge application, problem-solving, clinical competence, self-directed learning and soft skills; develop a comprehensive and performance-based student assessment programme; and establish a comprehensive quality monitoring programme to facilitate changes and improvements. New features include early introduction to the practice of medicine, family- and community-based medicine, professionalism, interprofessional education, electives experiences, and a scholarly project. Institutional reform introduces a faculty development programme, joint planning mechanism, a “culture of critical inquiry”, and a transparent faculty reward system. Lessons learnt from the curriculum reform at UMP-FM could be helpful to medical schools from low- and middle-income countries considering transitioning from a traditional to a competency-based curriculum