Article based on the master' s thesis on the NA CARVALHO, intitled "Fatores associados à não adesão e à não aceitação da alimentação escolar por alunos de escolas públicas de tempo integral".
A B S T R A C T ObjectiveIdentifying adherence to, and acceptance of school feeding, and analyzing the factors associated with non-adherence/ non-acceptance in full-time public schools in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil.
MethodsCross-sectional study with students of both sexes aged 6-14 years. Issues regarding the consumption of meals, food distribution, food eaten outside the school and socioeconomic data, including nutritional assessment of students, were investigated. Adherence to meals was defined as the consumption of school meals four to five times/week, and acceptance was defined as meal approval, using the facial hedonic scale.
ResultsA total of 359 students participated in this study and it was observed that adherence was high for lunch (95%) and afternoon snacks (78%), and low for morning snacks (44%). Acceptance did not reach the required minimum percentage of 85% for any of the meals. Factors associated with non-adherence were the presence of >4 people in a household, having meals in a refectory, the meal location being considered uncomfortable and a negative evaluation of utensils used in eating meals. Factors associated with non-acceptance were age >10 years, female sex, the negative evaluation of utensils used in eating meals and inadequate food temperature.