Major dietary patterns and their recent trends among Brazilian adult population
Diet has been shown to be one of the most important modifiable risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCD) that play important role in the morbidity and mortality worldwide. The aim of this study was to describe four major dietary patterns and their recent trends in Brazil.
METHODS:
A sample of 268,955 adults participants from the Brazilian Surveillance System of Risk and Protective Factors for NCD through Telephone Interviews (VIGITEL) from the years 2007-2011 (last year available) was analyzed. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to identify major dietary patterns. We selected food items with load >0.2 because of the few variables available. The components were rotated using by an orthogonal procedure (Varimax). Linear regression was used to explore the association between the dietary patterns and other behavioral variables (smoking and physical activity). All models were adjusted for age and sex.
RESULTS:
The four major patterns explain 53.7% of data variance (KMO=0.624). The first pattern labeled FRSA was composed by fatty meat/chicken, red meat, soda and alcoholic beverage; RFVMi (read meat, fruit, vegetable, milk); FVCF (fatty meat/chicken, vegetable, chicken, fruit); and MiB (milk and bean). Physical activity was positively (β=0.135 p<0.001) associated with RFVM pattern and inversely with FRSA (β=-0.051 p<0.001) and MB (β=-0.014,p<0.001). Tobacco use was positively associated with FRSA pattern (β=0.108,p<0.001) and FVCF (β=0.005,p=0.001), but inversely associated with RFVM (β=-0.049,p<0.001) and MB (β=-0.121,p<0.001) patterns. FRSA and FVCF patterns frequency is increasing over the years and RFVM decreasing. RFVM pattern is characterized by healthy markers of diet such as fruit, vegetable and milk.
CONCLUSIONS: Modifiable risk factors for NCD are clustered among Brazilian adults. That is in line with many others developed countries trends. That figures the challenge faced by health policy makers and highlight the extension of actions needed to reduce burden of NCD in Brazil.