Insegurança alimentar e nutricional: associação com fatores sociodemográficos, alimentares e de saúde em adolescentes de Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brasil

Abstract

Food and nutrition insecurity is a worldwide public health problem, which affects mainly the less economically favored regions. It is a challenging theme due to its complexity and scope, in addition to the various determinants that involve its understanding. Of fundamental importance, its approach is necessary especially in children and adolescents, considering its involvement with greater intensity at home. Some studies show associations between the situation of INSAN and a worse state of food and health in children and adolescents, however, such investigations are still insufficient. The present study therefore sought to associate socio-demographic, economic, food and health factors with food and nutritional insecurity in adolescents in the city of Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais. This is a crosssectional epidemiological study with 782 adolescents, aged 14 to 18 years of elementary and high school in public schools in the municipality. Food and nutritional insecurity was assessed using the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale, the economic classification was evaluated according to the Brazil Economic Classification Criterion, of the Brazilian Association of Research Companies, the number of household residents, the perception of food, the act of having breakfast, lunch, dinner, access to health services and the perception of health were measured by unique self-reported questions, according to the available answer options. The SPSS and STATA softwares were used for the processing of descriptive data, bivariate analysis of the variables of interest and subsequently the multiple model using Poisson Regression. The 782 adolescents evaluated had a mean age of 16.08 ± 1.174 years and 58.6% were female. The prevalence of 37% of food and nutrition insecurity and 78.1% of adolescents with low and medium family income was found. When assessing the perception of food, 57.8% of adolescents considered their own food and 37.6% considered the food of those responsible in a negative way. When considering meals, 51.9% had breakfast, 11% lunch and 39.5% dinner less than four times a week. Regarding health, 68.2% of the adolescents attended the health service in the last twelve months, the negative perception of health among the adolescents was 30.6% and those responsible for them, 31.2%. The final multiple models showed that medium and low income, households with six or more residents, negative perception of the parents' food, breakfast less than four times a week, negative perception of their own health and the health of those responsible association and higher prevalence of food and nutrition insecurity. When evaluating dinner, those who ate less than four meals a week had a lower prevalence of food and nutritional insecurity. The results of this investigation reveal the importance of assessing food and nutrition insecurity not only from a socioeconomic and demographic perspective, but also considering aspects of perception, dietary and health characteristics. These factors, until then, little evaluated on this theme, further expand the scope of multidimensional assessment of food and nutritional security. Furthermore, the period of adolescence is considered relevant, given the vulnerability of this public and the tendency to maintain certain habits in adulthood.