title: ERICA: prevalence of healthy eating habits among Brazilian adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE To describe the prevalence of eating habits considered healthy in adolescents according to sex, age, education level of the mother, school type, session of study, and geographic region. METHODS The assessed data come from the Study of Cardiovascular Risks in Adolescents (ERICA), a cross-sectional, national and school-based study. Adolescents of 1,247 schools of 124 Brazilian municipalities were evaluated using a self-administered questionnaire with a section on aspects related to eating behaviors. The following eating behaviors were considered healthy: consuming breakfast, drinking water, and having meals accompanied by parents or legal guardians. All prevalence estimates were presented proportionally, with their respective 95% confidence intervals. The Chi-square test was used to evaluate the differences in healthy eating habits prevalences according to other variables. The module survey of the Stata program version 13.0 was used to analyze complex data. RESULTS We evaluated 74,589 adolescents (72.9% of the eligible students). Of these, 55.2% were female, average age being 14.6 years (SD = 1.6). Among Brazilian adolescents, approximately half of them showed healthy eating habits when consuming breakfast, drinking five or more glasses of water a day, and having meals with parents or legal guardians. All analyzed healthy eating habits showed statistically significant differences by sex, age, type of school, session of study, or geographic region . CONCLUSIONS We suggest that specific actions of intersectoral approach are implemented for the dissemination of the benefits of healthy eating habits. Older female adolescents (15 to 17 years old) who studied in public schools, resided in the Southeast region, and whose mothers had lower education levels, should be the focus of these actions since they present lower frequencies concerning the evaluated healthy habits.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Vigilância de Doenças e Agravos Não Transmissíveis e Promoção da Saúde, Secretaria de Vigilância em Saúde, Ministério da Saúde, Brasília, DF, Brasil.
authors.forename: Laura Augusta
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: Barufaldi
authors.affiliation: Instituto Medicina Social, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
authors.forename: Gabriela de Azevedo
authors.initials: Gde A
authors.lastname: Abreu
authors.affiliation: Núcleo de Nutrição, Centro Acadêmico de Vitória, Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Vitória de Santo Antão, PE, Brasil.
authors.forename: Juliana Souza
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Instituto Medicina Social, Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.
authors.forename: Debora França
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: dos Santos
authors.affiliation: Escola de Enfermagem, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brasil.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fujimori
authors.affiliation: Faculdade de Nutrição, Universidade Federal de Alagoas, Maceió, AL, Brasil.
authors.forename: Sandra Mary Lima
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Vasconcelos
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Nutrição, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianópolis, SC, Brasil.
authors.forename: Francisco de Assis Guedes
authors.initials: Fde A
authors.lastname: de Vasconcelos
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Saúde e Biotecnologia, Universidade Federal do Amazonas, Coari, AM, Brasil.
authors.forename: Bruno Mendes
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Tavares
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001938:Brazil; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004034:Diet Surveys; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012307:Risk Factors; D012574:Schools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors