Ambiente alimentar e consumo de frutas, legumes e verduras em adultos de Belo Horizonte - MG

Abstract

Enviroiirnental, social and individual factors influence eating patterns. which in turn affect the risk of many chronic diseases. Fruil and vegetable (FV) consumption play a protective role in Lhe onsei of non-cornmunicable disea.ses. People with higher incomes and greater educational attairnent .end to consume more fruit and vegetables than those who are less affluent and less educated. lii addition. recent puhlished studies have suggested thai closer proxirnity Lo a chain superrnarket is positively associated with fruit and vegetable intake or overail diecary quality. The aini of this work was to test associations hetween environmental factors and lhe consumption of FV ainong adults in a Brazilian urban context. Data from the surveiliance system for risk factors for chronic diseases of Brazilian Ministry of l-lealth was used (VIGITEL - 2008/2009/2010). A cross-sectional telephone survey was carried out with 5.826 adults (45.8% men and 54.2% women. mean age 39.5 years) in the urban area of Belo Horizonte. Individual variables were collected by telephone interviews. The periodicity of FV consurnption was assessed from number of servings. weekly freuency and a FV intake score. The score ranged from O to 12. The geographic coordinates (latitude and longitude) of each individual were obtained. considering the centroid of the street correspoiiding to the sarne ZIP code. Geo-referenced variables vere used to characterize the food environrnent. The number of stores selling FV - supermarkeis. hypermarkets. shops and markets specialized in selling FV- as well as restaurants. bars and fast food stores.The neighborhood income and health vulnerahility index were also investigated and agreed to score FV intake. Weighted multilevel linear regression was used to evaluate the associations hetween the food environrnent and t.he FV intake score. The results showed higher FV intake scores in women and physically active people and lower seores iii smokers. The results also showed increase in FV intake score wiih increasing age as well as schooling. A positive relationship hetween the number of grocery stores in the neighhorhood and FV intake score and a negative relationship was observed between worse health vuliierability index and the score of FV consumplion. li was also observed ihat the food environrnent was not associated with FV intake score when adjusted by neighborhood income. The neighborhood incorne joined the scores of FV iniake. showing that the score of consumplion increases as does the total income of the neighhorhood. Characeristics ol Lhe neighborhood thai people live in are associated with FV in urban Brazilian adults. Surveillance systetns as VIGITEI. are inieresting tools in ihis type of research and with the information hased on GIS. and constitute importam tools for planning actions to prornote fruit and vegetable consurnption.