Introdução alimentar precoce de ultraprocessados e sua relação com a estatura e concentração de hemoglobina em crianças menores de cinco anos em vulnerabilidade social no município de Maceió-Alagoas

Abstract

The quality of children's diets has undergone several changes with the increasingly early inclusion of foods of low nutritional value, widely known as ultra-processed foods (UPF). This situation harms the nutritional status of children and seems to reflect on this population's height and hemoglobin concentration. The present study aimed to assess whether there is an association between the early introduction of UPF with height and hemoglobin concentration in children under five years of age who live in a situation of social vulnerability in the city of Maceió-Alagoas. This is a cross-sectional, population-based study carried out between October 2020 and May 2021 in subnormal agglomerates in the municipality of Maceió-Alagoas. Standardized questionnaires were used to collect socioeconomic data, and to assess the introduction of UPF, in addition to an anthropometric assessment and children's hemoglobin concentration. The sample totaled 623 individuals. Most of the population is a beneficiary of an income transfer program (67.6%), and almost half of the sample (47.9%) lives below the poverty line, with 20.9% living in extreme poverty. Regarding the assessment of the early introduction of UPF, there is a prevalence in the consumption of sweet/salty biscuits and petit suisse cheese, especially between 6 and 8 months of age. For nutritional status, the mean found for Height for Age was a -0.4 Z score, and it was also identified that the mean concentration of Hb was 10.7 g/dL. It was observed that the introduction of sweet/salty cookies harms children's height (β: -0.26; CI: -0.5; -0.0). It was also observed that both sweet/salty cookies (β: -0.28; CI: -0.5; -0.0), and soft drinks (β: -0.43; CI: -0.7; -0, 1), negatively impact hemoglobin concentration. This information demonstrates a need to improve public health policies, especially concerning reinforcing the importance of adequate and healthy food, precisely so that there is a better formation of children's eating habits, minimizing the introduction of densely packed foods, caloric, and nutrient poor