Dietary Behaviors among Young and Older Adults in Brazil.

OBJECTIVES: To describe healthy and unhealthy dietary behaviors among young and older Brazilian adults.

DESIGN: Cross-sectional study based on secondary data from the Brazilian National Health Survey 2013/2014, conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).

SETTINGS: Brazil.

PARTICIPANTS: 59,402 Brazilian adults (18 years or over), representative of the whole community-dwelling Brazilian adult population.

MEASUREMENTS: Frequency of regular (5 days/week or more) consumption of food considered of a healthy diet (fruit, vegetables, greens, cooked vegetables, beans, milk, chicken, fish) and unhealthy diet (red meat, soda and sweets, meal replacement for fast food and high salt consumption) was investigated. Differences among young adults (18-39 years), middle-aged adults (40-59 years) and older adults (60+ years) were assessed through 95% confidence intervals and logistic regression models with contrast function, considering the complexity of the sample and the sample weight of the research.

RESULTS: Less than half of the population reported consuming fruit regularly (41.3%, 95% CI = 40.5 - 42.2) and only one quarter reported consuming vegetables regularly (25.4%, 95% CI = 24.7 - 26.1). Regular consumption of soft drinks was cited by 26.6% (95% CI = 25.5 - 27.6) for men and 20.6% (95% CI = 19.8 - 21.4) for women. Young adults presented, in general, lower frequency of regular consumption of healthy food and higher frequency of unhealthy food when compared to middle-aged and the older adults.

CONCLUSION: Current dietary behaviors adopted by the Brazilian population is characterized by a high prevalence of inadequate food intake, mainly among young adults calling the attention to the necessity for age-specific public health interventions.