Qualidade da dieta de adolescentes da rede municipal de ensino de Pelotas, RS

Abstract

Adolescence, a period of intense growth and human development, occurs between 10 and 19 years of age. It’s a phase of changes, among which are related to eating habits that are often not healthy. Studies point to an increase in the consumption of low nutritional quality foods by adolescents, habits that lead to high prevalence of overweight and obesity, especially in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil. The present study aimed to evaluate the quality of diet of adolescents in the municipal education system in the city of Pelotas/RS. A cross-sectional, school-based study was carried out with students enrolled in the ninth year of elementary school in 25 municipal schools in the urban area of Pelotas/RS linked to the Programa Saúde na Escola. The quality of diet was assessed using a relative index based on a reduced food frequency questionnaire with 10 items considered criteria for food consumption. For the calculation of the index (zero to 30 points), the highest frequency of consumption of healthy and unhealthy food increased and decreased (zero to three points), respectively. Evaluate the total score in tertiles, the index adolescents were classified as low, intermediate and high quality of diet. The association between diet quality and independent variables was investigated using multinomial logistic regression. The average score of the index was 16.0 (SD = 4.1) points. It was found that 64% of the participants classified themselves as having low and intermediate diet quality. The factors associated with the high quality of diet were: no alcohol experimentation, tobacco experimentation and practice of physical activity during leisure. The results alert to existence of unsatisfactory quality in adolescents' diet and point to the need to monitor the pattern of food consumption in this age group.