Consumo de alimentos ultraprocessados e comportamento alimentar de agentes comunitários de saúde do município de Vitória-ES

Abstract

Ultra-processed foods have been gaining ground in the Brazilian diet, impacting health and nutritional status, especially in groups with lower education and income. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between the percentage consumption of ultra-processed foods and the subscales of eating behavior in Community Health Agents (CHA). This is a cross-sectional, observational study with 247 CHAs from the city of Vitória – ES. Food consumption was obtained from two 24-hour recalls, used to estimate the percentage of caloric participation of ultra-processed foods (UPA) in the total diet, and later classified according to NOVA. Eating behavior was assessed using the “Dutch Eating Behavior Questionnaire” (DEBQ) for the “emotional eating”, “eating restriction” and “external eating” subscales. Multivariate logistic regression was used to assess the association between the highest median of the percentage of consumption of ultra-processed foods, eating behavior, nutritional status (BMI) and abdominal obesity (WHtR), lifestyle and sociodemographic characteristics. Adjustments were made for potential confounding factors, namely: gender, age, socioeconomic class, education, screen time at leisure, consumption of fruits and vegetables, and eating behavior. Overall, the AUP contributed 32.21% of the total caloric intake. For 91.1% of the sample, the consumption of fruits and vegetables was below the ideal (< 400g/day) and 72.5% had a nutritional diagnosis of abdominal adiposity assessed by WHtR. In the final adjusted model, it was observed that participants belonging to the age group between 41 and 59 years old had 49% less chance of consuming caloric percentages above the median of 30.2% of AUP (OR=0.51; 95%CI 0, 26-0.99). However, CHAs who had external eating as their dominant eating style were 2.2 times more likely (OR= 2.18; 95%CI 1.23-3.12) to consume caloric percentages greater than or equal to the median of AUP consumption. It was concluded that having external eating as the dominant eating style in eating behavior is associated with a greater chance of consuming AUP.