Omissão do desjejum e fatores associados entre adolescentes

Abstract

Breakfast consumption is a healthy habit and it is associated with other behaviors considered beneficial to health. However, the omission of breakfast is a common practice among adolescents and could trigger nutritional changes and be associated with unhealthy behaviors. Objective: To analyze the prevalence and factors associated with omission of breakfast among adolescents. Methods: Cross-sectional study with adolescents aged 10 to 17 years of age, evaluated between 2009 and 2011, belonging to a cohort study. The omission of breakfast, outcome variable, was considered as non performing this meal daily. Factors about socio-demographic, economic and lifestyle were evaluated through a questionnaire. The economy class was defined according to the criteria established by the Brazilian Association of Research Companies - ABEP; ranging from category A (highest level) to E (lowest). The lifestyle variables were: tobacco experimentation, experimentation with alcohol, physical activity, dietary factors and sedentary behaviors. The anthropometric assessment included measurement of weight and height, which were used to classify weight by z scores for body mass index for age and sex, according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization. Poisson regression was used in the multivariate analysis to estimate the association between dependent and independent variables. Results: Of the 1716 adolescents studied, 36.2% reported not consuming breakfast every day. Most of the adolescents had up to 11 years old (55.9%), 50.7% were male, 78.4% reported not white skin color, 59.8% belonged to economic class C, D and E (lower economic classes), 51.9% were studying in morning shift at school, 61.7% reported not consuming this meal with parents or guardians and 9.3% were classified as obese. After adjusting for age and economic class, the omission of breakfast was associated in both sexes with not consuming this meal with parents (male: OR = 4.60, 95% CI 3.30; 6.42; sex female: OR = 5.96, 95% CI 4.02; 8.83) and morning shift at school (male: OR = 1.29, 95% CI 1.02, 1.62; female: OR = 1.47, 95% CI 1.17; 1.84). The outcomes assessed were associated with obesity only in males (OR = 1.76, 95% CI 0.98; 1.75). Conclusion: The omission of breakfast was observed in more than a third of adolescents. In both sexes, this outcome was associated with morning shift at school and not carrying out the breakfast with parents. The association with obesity was observed only among boys. These results indicate that the habit of skipping breakfast is related to behavioral aspects, amenable to change through interventions in health and nutrition.