Objective:
The aim of the current study was to identify and describe the meal and snack patterns (breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, dinner and evening snack) of public schoolchildren.
Design:
Cross-sectional study. Information on the previous day’s food intake was obtained through the Web-CAAFE (Food Intake and Physical Activity of Schoolchildren), an interactive questionnaire, which divides daily food consumption into three meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and three snacks (mid-morning, mid-afternoon and evening). Each meal contains thirty-one food items and the schoolchildren clicked on the food items consumed in each meal. Factor analysis was used to identify meal and snack patterns. The descriptions of the dietary patterns (DP) were based on food items with factor loads ≥ 0·30 that were considered representative of each DP.
Setting:
Schoolchildren, Florianopolis, Brazil.
Participants:
Children (n 1074) aged 7–13 years.
Results:
Lunch was the most consumed meal (96·0 %), followed by dinner (86·4 %), breakfast (85·3 %) and mid-afternoon snack (81·7 %). Four DP were identified for breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, dinner and evening snack, and three for mid-afternoon snack. Breakfast, lunch and dinner patterns included traditional Brazilian foods. DP consisting of fast foods and sugary beverages were also observed, mainly for the evening snack.
Conclusions:
The results of the current study provide important information regarding the meal and snack patterns of schoolchildren to guide the development of nutrition interventions in public health.
Objective To identify trends in food consumption among schoolchildren (2nd-5th grades) from public schools in the city of Florianópolis, Brazil, in a period of three years. Methods Three cross-sectional surveys were carried out in 2013 (n=1,942), 2014 (n=1,989) and 2015 (n=2,418). Dietary intake data were obtained using the Web-Based Food Intake and Physical Activity of Schoolchildren questionnaire. Food items were aggregated to eight food groups. Kruskal-Wallis heterogeneity and trend tests were used to analyze the differences and trends among the mean intake frequency of food groups. Results There were trends to decrease the mean intake frequency of sweets in the total sample (2013: 0.72±0.91; 2014: 0.68±0.87; 2015: 0.67±0.89, p=0.03) which was determined by children between 7-9 years old (2013: 0.69±0.88; 2014: 0.64±0.85; 2015: 0.62±0.87, p=0.02), and boys (2013: 0.75±0.90; 2014: 0.70±0.86; 2015: 0.68±0.88, p=0.03). Younger children also tended to increase the mean intake frequency of fruits and vegetables (2013: 1.03±1.35; 2014: 1.16±1.45; 2015: 1.17±1.41, p=0.03) and those aged ten-12 years decreased their intake of dairy products (2013: 1.32±1.25; 2014: 1.23±1.18; 2015: 1.20±1.20, p=0.05). Conclusion The results suggest positive trends for younger children, with an increased consumption of fruits and vegetables in both sexes and decreased consumption of sweets for boys. Older children reduced their consumption of dairy products over the three-year period of this study.
RESUMO: Introdução: O questionário de Consumo Alimentar e Atividade Física de Escolares (Web-CAAFE) foi desenvolvido para o monitoramento da dieta e atividade física de escolares brasileiros. Este estudo buscou avaliar o efeito do dia da semana e do número de aplicações na reprodutibilidade do Web-CAAFE. Metodologia: Escolares do 2º ao 5º ano (n = 197) de Florianópolis preencheram o Web-CAAFE por duas vezes no mesmo dia, dos quais 113 o fizeram em três dias não consecutivos. Avaliou-se a reprodutibilidade por meio da correlação intraclasse (CCI) e da regressão logística, para avaliação dos fatores associados à pior reprodutibilidade. Resultados: Observaram-se piores resultados de reprodutibilidade para o preenchimento do consumo nos finais de semana em relação àqueles que responderam em dias da semana (odds ratio - OR = 2,93; p = 0,045) e melhores resultados em meninas em relação aos meninos (OR = 0,29; p < 0,001). O preenchimento do consumo realizado nos segundo e terceiro dias apresentou melhor reprodutibilidade que o realizado no primeiro. Esses resultados são relevantes para o planejamento de futuros estudos que utilizem instrumentos de consumo alimentar em crianças, em especial sobre avaliação de sua validade e reprodutibilidade. Conclusões: Os resultados sugerem que pelo menos dois dias de aplicação do Web-CAAFE fornecem resultados aceitáveis de reprodutibilidade, e que o preenchimento referente ao fim de semana pode reduzi-la.
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