Determinantes demográficos e socioeconômicos do consumo alimentar de funcionários de campi universitários do Rio de Janeiro: estudo Pró-Saúde

Abstract

We investigated food consumption and associations with individual socioeconomic and sociodemographic characteristics. Technical administrative staff of university campuses of Rio de Janeiro, participating in Pró-Saúde Study, were evaluated. Employees were selected in 1999 (n = 4030) and three additional follow-up waves (1999, 2001, 2006 and 2011-12) were performed over a 13-year period. For the present thesis, baseline (1999) and two follow-up waves (2001 and 2011-12) data were used, as well as cross-sectional data from a subsample of 520 cohort employees who completed a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), resulting in two manuscripts. The purpose of manuscript 1 was to investigate food consumption according to the degree of processing and associations with socio-demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. The purpose of manuscript 2 was to evaluate the variation of intraindividual consumption of fruits and leafy vegetables and to investigate longitudinal associations with educational and income trajectories. In manuscript 1, the fresh food group contributed 59% of energy consumption and was directly associated with age. In contrast, ultraprocessed foods contributed 27% and were inversely associated with age. Sex, income and education were not associated with food consumption according to the degree, extent and purpose of processing. In manuscript 2, we observed that only a quarter of participants reported daily consumption of fruits and vegetables in the three waves of the study. The variation in the daily frequency of fruit and vegetable consumption during the 13 years was mainly associated with the educational trajectories, with different results according to gender. Men and women with upward mobility trajectories were more likely to consume fruits daily during follow-up period, when compared to those with low accumulated education. This association was also found among men with high accumulated education, with effect on fruit consumption and vegetable consumption. Income trajectories were not associated with variations in fruit and vegetable consumption. This thesis contributes to the understanding of the role of individual socioeconomic and sociodemographic determinants in food consumption, as well as the characterization and description of inequities in the consumption of food markers of healthy eating among the participants of the Pró-Saúde Study cohort.