METHODOLOGY: A systematic search was conducted on October 1, 2022, on PubMed, Scopus, Google, and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) News's official website to identify COVID-19 apps available in Vietnam. The apps were evaluated through user reviews and content analysis of their specific features and drawbacks.
RESULTS: Thirty Vietnam-based COVID-19 mobile apps were identified on the Apple and Google Play Store. Their functions were recorded and analyzed using a dedicated tool for appraising mobile applications. Although useful, many specific COVID-19 features were dispersed and duplicated between the apps. The most comprehensive apps still lack important functionalities, such as vaccination information. The most serious user concerns were privacy breaches during data recording and storage, technical issues, and non-user-friendly interfaces.
CONCLUSIONS: The panorama of current COVID-19 apps in Vietnam is complex and includes many apps. Their overlap in features and functions could create a dispersion of mobile users that could undermine the apps' usefulness and effectiveness in combating the pandemic in Vietnam. An app that integrates the most useful features and addresses the main issues could facilitate user experience and usage uptake.
METHODS: We evaluated food environment by geospatial mapping of food outlets through a transect walk across the "food ecosystem" from rural to urban areas. Diet quality was assessed using the Diet Quality Index - Vietnamese (DQI-V) comprising Variety, Adequacy, Moderation and Balance components. Malnutrition status was determined using body mass index. We performed a mediation analysis utilising mixed effect models to control for neighbourhood clustering effects. Confounders included age, education, income and nutrition knowledge score.
RESULTS: Analysis of data from 595 adult participants (mean ± SD age: 31.2 ± 6.4 years; 50% female) found that longer distance to the nearest food outlet was associated with higher overall DQI-V (β = 2.0; 95% confidence interval = 0.2-3.8; p = 0.036) and the Moderation component (β = 2.6; 95% confidence interval = 1.2-4.0; p = 0.001). Outlet density shows a negative association with the odds of underweight among women (odds ratio = 0.62; 95% confidence interval = 0.37-0.96). However, we did not observe statistically significant relationships between diet quality and malnutrition. Education and nutrition knowledge scores were positively associated with diet diversity, while income was negatively associated with diet moderation.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings of the present study have important implications for nutrition and dietetics practice in Vietnam and globally. It emphasises the need to consider various dimensions of sustainable diets, including economic, health and socio-cultural/political factors. Longer distances to food outlets are associated with higher diet quality, whereas lower food outlet density increases the odds of underweight among women. This poses challenges in balancing modernisation and its adverse effects on sustainable food systems. Socio-economic status consistently correlated with diet quality and malnutrition, necessitating further research to promote healthy diets across socio-economic strata.