Desenvolvimento de questionário quantitativo de frequência alimentar e adaptação do índice de alimentação saudável para crianças de 13 a 35 meses

Abstract

The lack of dietary instruments that allow to know the eating habits of children in a practical way, more accurate, less costly and that relate to diet with health outcomes is necessary to their development. This study aimed to: develop a Quantitative Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ), adapt the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) North American to Brazilian dietary recommendations, assess their applicability and analyze the overall quality of the diet of children. In the first article elaborated the WHO list from three dietary Recalls Surveys 24 hours (RS24h) applied to mothers or guardians of 206 children from 13 to 32 months old from Sao Luis - MA. Composed the list food items that contributed 90% of energy intake and from eight nutrients. The FFQ included 77 food items that with eight categories of frequency of use, portions defined as small, medium and large and the previous time to the consumption of six months. Proven its validity and reproducibility the FFQ may be useful for epidemiological studies to evaluate the possible relationship between diet and health outcomes of children. In the second article the sample consisted of 1185 children from 13 to 35 months old São Luís-MA. Food consumption was estimated by applying a Recalls Surveys from 24 hours (RS24h) and it was made the adjusting of intrapersonal variability. The Pearson or Spearman coefficients were used to evaluate the correlation between the scores of HEI adapted to its components, energy and dietary nutrients. The quality of the diet was assessed by adapted HEI. The average of the HEI was 74.8 (± 13.2) points, with 58.7% of the children showing diets that need improvement and 36.6% with good quality diets. There was a positive correlation between the HEI and variety of diet, food groups, energy, protein, vitamins A, C, B1, B2, B6, folate, iron and zinc; and negative with total fat, saturated fat and sodium (p <0.05). The adapted HEI was adequate to assess the quality of the overall diet of children