Análise do ambiente alimentar da cidade de Rio Largo, Alagoas

Abstract

The food environment is the component of the food system where people interact with food businesses. Such establishments can promote healthy eating habits by offering a greater quantity of fresh and minimally processed foods, and not offering ultra-processed foods. In addition to the internal characteristics, healthy businesses must be distributed throughout the city, guaranteeing access to the entire population. Therefore, the present study aimed to analyze the food environment in the city of Rio Largo, Alagoas. The establishments were identified by auditing on the streets (gold standard method) and georeferenced. Then, the Nutrition Environment Survey for Stores instrument adapted and validated for the Brazilian population was used, which assesses the points of sale of food through the Healthy Food Availability Index (HFAI), with a range of -30 to 100 points , based on food groups, variety, price and quality of food; subsequently, they were divided into 3 categories: healthy stores (mostly selling healthy foods), ultra-processed stores (offering mainly foods that are harmful to health) and mixed stores, which offer all types of food simultaneously. Additionally, the relationship between the spatial distribution of businesses and the socioeconomic level of the census tracts was also investigated. Statistical analyzes were performed using the Stata 13 statistical package and geoprocessing using QGIS 3.4 software. 574 establishments were analyzed, with the IDAS average of 2.6 points, justified by the predominance of ultra-processed businesses in the city (63.1%). Mixed stores, despite having the highest IDAS score (19.26 points), would score about 53% higher if they did not market large quantities of ultra-processed foods. Census sectors with the highest prevalence of extreme poverty had the highest proportion of ultra-processed stores (70.2%), while also having a lower availability of establishments in general (n = 47; 8.2%). Healthy businesses were present in clusters, concentrating 38.3% of all stores in the city center. It was also identified that 184.02 km2 (59.3%) of the total area of the city could be classified as a food desert, where in these spaces, the majority were found in the lowest income stratum (44.4%). The city has an unfavorable food environment for healthy eating practices, and it is necessary to encourage healthy food businesses by supporting local family farming and encouraging healthy food businesses.