Estado nutricional e consumo alimentar de adolescentes brasileiros: recorte temporal

Abstract

Adolescents correspond to almost a third of the Brazilian population. This stage of life is considered to be of greater vulnerability commonly leading them to changes in life habits. Among this changes inadequate eating behavior can be observed, which associated with life and health conditions can reflect negatively on their nutritional status. Therefore, this study aims at analyzing the sociodemographic, individual and behavioral factors that affect the nutritional status and food consumption of Brazilian adolescents. A cross-sectional study, with a national basis, in which data from the National School Health Survey were used in the time frame of 2009 and 2015. The variables were grouped into sociodemographic, individual and behavioral variables. To classify food consumption, positive scores were established for healthy foods and negative scores for unhealthy foods. The sum generated scores classifying food consumption as adequate and inadequate. Nutritional status was classified according to Ministry of Health criteria based on weight and height data. To verify data independence, the Chi-square test was performed. And yet, for the geospatial distribution between the regions, the Qgis program was used. In 2015, there was a higher prevalence of underweight and normal weight compared to 2009, while the prevalence of overweight decreased in all regions. In 2009, adequate food consumption was more frequent among students from private schools, children of mothers who had not finished high school, who had family meals and in front of screens, in this period the Midwest region had higher frequencies of adequate food consumption. In 2015, the adequacy of food consumption was more frequent among students from public schools, children of mothers who finished higher education, who had meals more often with their families and in front of screens, in this period all regions showed improvement in this index, highlighting the North region. It can be concluded that individual and behavioral characteristics influenced food consumption of Brazilian adolescents between 2009 and 2015. However, it is worth noting that the public policies in force in this period may have contributed to positive impacts on consumption food when comparing 2009 to 2015.