Avaliação do consumo alimentar e do padrão de compra de adolescentes do município de Juiz de Fora-MG

Abstract

The eating habits of young people are mainly characterized by irregular meals, snacks, meals outside the home and the practice of alternative diets. The set of such characteristics, associated mainly with the rampant consumption of foods with high caloric value and, together with the sedentary lifestyle, is producing a generation with high rates of overweight and obesity, being considered an emerging problem of public health around the world. Thus, the need to implement more efficient public policies and actions for health promotion and the stimulation of lifestyle change, with a focus on nutritional education, is reinforced. It is worth noting that for a greater effectiveness of these actions, knowledge of the determinants of food consumption of the study population is important, since it defines or clarifies the reason adolescents consume certain types of food, providing subsidies for planning nutritional interventions. In view of the above, the objective of the study was to evaluate the determinants of food consumption and the purchasing pattern of adolescents from public and private schools in the city of Juiz de Fora - MG. The data collection was done through the project called Market School, in which anthropometric data were collected, according to the recommendations of the Ministry of Health, data on eating habits and satisfaction with body image, through questionnaires and data on purchases of foodstuffs, through the simulation of purchases in a mini market. For the analysis of the anthropometric data, the WHOAntroplus software was used and the z-score values for the body mass index according to age and height for the age were found. Dietary habits were analyzed in the Dietwin program by calculating the energy contribution of food, which were previously classified according to their degree of processing. In order to determine the purchasing pattern, all the foods purchased by the adolescents according to their degree of processing and R-studio software were initially counted, the cluster analysis was performed, in which the adolescents were grouped according to the similarity of their purchases. The project went through 10 schools, among them, 6 of the public network and 4 of the private network, chosen for convenience. The collection period was from May 2016 to October 2017 and involved the participation of 660 adolescents, of whom 58.7% belonged to the public school system, with a median age of 13 years (10-16). Regarding nutritional status, 1.5% were of inadequate height for age, 30.93% had abdominal fat excess and 34.4% were overweight. We found 4 eating patterns (healthy, restricted, excess and junk food). Regarding the characteristics of the food consumption, the contribution percentage of the median fresh food consumption was 42.34 (0-100), processed 17,17 (0-83,74) and ultraprocessed 32,21 (0- 98,84). It is hoped that the findings of the present study will serve to implement public measures and actions, aimed at the adolescent population, that promote healthy eating and consequently reduce the rates of overweight and obesity.