Desigualdades sociais no estado nutricional e consumo alimentar de escolares brasileiros

Abstract

Introduction: Evidence shows that individuals with low socioeconomic status are prone to malnutrition, which contributes to health inequalities and increases the prevalence of nutritional disorders in childhood. In addition, there are no studies in Brazil assessing the social inequality in adolescents’ nutritional status and food consumption. Objective: To assess social inequalities regarding the nutritional status and food consumption of Brazilian students. Materials and Methods: We used the data from the 2015 National Adolescent School-based Health Survey (PeNSE – Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde do Escolar), which was a research with students aged 13 to 17 years of public and private schools in urban and rural areas in Brazil. The variables of interest were the demographic characteristics, sex, nutritional status and food consumption of fruits, vegetables, soft drinks, treats and fast food. We created a wealth score based on answers about the ownership of goods and access to services by means of the principal component analysis (PCA), later divided into quintiles. We calculated the Slope index of inequalities and the Concentration index, along with simple inequality measures based on differences and ratios. The t-test identified statistically significant differences in sex inequality. Results: Male students were more prone to obesity in the wealthiest quintile. The SII of +7.79 and CIX of +15.23 showed that inequality favored the richest students. Regarding consumption, the inequality indices had similar positive values for all foods analyzed, showing that inequality favored the richest individuals. Conclusion: Social inequality among adolescents fostered unequal consumption and nutritional deviations. The richest ones were more affected by obesity and by a higher consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods.