Padrão alimentar de crianças cadastradas no Programa Criança Alagoana (CRIA) no município de União dos Palmares e fatores associados

Abstract

Complementary feeding, defined as the introduction of food alongside the supply of breast milk, if carried out inappropriately is an important risk factor for infant morbidity and mortality. Furthermore, the food consumption of Brazilian children seems not to meet recommendations, which is associated with worse socioeconomic conditions. Therefore, the present study aimed to identify dietary patterns and associated factors of low-income children at the time of registration in the Criança Alagoana program (CRIA) in the municipality of União dos Palmares-AL. This is a cross-sectional study carried out using the database from a larger research, approved by the research ethics committee of the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) under protocol number 4,641,472. The sample of the present study is made up of children aged between 6 and 24 months, registered in the CRIA program. Data collection was carried out via telephone call, using a form containing questions regarding socioeconomic conditions, clinical, nutritional and food consumption data. Food consumption was assessed using a specific questionnaire for children under two years of age, and the answers were analyzed in a descriptive way, with 14 indicators also being constructed. Additionally, an exploratory factor analysis of the variables was carried out to create dietary patterns and their association with the other variables through Poisson progression. These analyzes were carried out using the SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Science) software version 21. 112 infants were included, the majority being male (55.4%), with a mean age of 16.67±5.40 months, maternal mean age of 26.41±6.25 years and family mean income of 361.47±280. reais. Regarding dietary patterns, five were identified, called pattern 1: cereals, tubers and protein foods; pattern 2: breast milk and other milks; pattern 3: fruits and vegetables; pattern 4: industrialized; pattern 5: porridge and porridge. Increased education of the head of the family (from education level below complete secondary education, prevalence ratios and confidence intervals present values below 1, with p < 0.05), smoking during pregnancy (RP = 0.690; 95% CI 0.542;0.878) were inversely associated with adherence to pattern 1, while pattern 2 was directly associated with maternal age < 19 years (RP = 1.097 ;95%CI 1.014;1.188) and not receiving benefits other than CRIA (RP = 1.118; 95%CI 1.002;1.247), this pattern was also negatively associated with receiving family income < 1 minimum wage (RP = 0.822; 95%CI 0.742;0.911). Finally, pattern 3 demonstrated a positive association with the child's age > 12 months (RP = 1.135; 95%CI 1.016;1.268) and alcohol consumption during pregnancy (RP = 1.148; 95%CI 1.004;1.311).The dietary patterns found were marked by the presence of foods not recommended for infants, mainly ultra-processed products, and are associated with sociodemographic variables, which highlights the inadequacy of consumption observed.