Ambiente alimentar residencial e obesidade em crianças e adolescentes de uma cidade de médio porte brasileira

Abstract

Obesity is a public health problem that affects the health of children and adolescents early. Among the various factors involved in its etiology are aspects of the environment in which people live, including the food environment, that may favor or not healthy food consumption and weight gain. The aim of this study was to evaluate environmental variables for their potential association with obesity in children and adolescents of a midsize Brazilian city. A cross-sectional study was carried out with 661 students of both sexes, aged 7 to 14 years, enrolled in primary education in public schools in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The presence of obesity was defined by the cutoff score Z> +2 standard deviation for the body mass index by age indicator. The social environment was characterized by the level of social deprivation, using the Health Vulnerability Index (IVS). The food environment was evaluated by the density of establishments selling food (number by area of the urban residential region). The establishments were evaluated according to two different aggregation criteria. The categories formed were: (1) healthy, unhealthy, mixed and supermarkets, hypermarkets and similar; And (2) food services for immediate consumption and food trade for home preparation. The distribution of food stores was also analyzed according to the level of social deprivation of the urban residential region. The associations between environmental measures and the presence of obesity were estimated using binary logistic regression from the model of generalized estimation equations. There was an inverse association between the density of supermarkets, hypermarkets and similar, and the presence of obesity (OR = 0.58; 95% CI: 0.36-0.93). For the other categories of food retail establishments evaluated, no significant differences were observed. In addition, we observed a higher density of all types of establishments with food sales in areas of lower social deprivation. The findings of this study point to the existence of an association between the food environment and the obesity of children and adolescents, and reinforce the need to deepen the investigations about the influence of supermarkets and similar on food consumption and infant nutritional status.