Perception of eating practices and stages of change among Brazilian adolescents

Jan 24, 2009Preventive medicine

How Brazilian Teens View Their Eating Habits and Readiness to Change

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Abstract

More than 44% of adolescents had a mistaken perception of their diet.

Low consumption of fruit and vegetables, along with high consumption of sweets and fats, was observed among the participants.
A significant relationship exists between the stages of change in eating practices and actual food consumption.
Reclassification of stages of change was necessary to accurately reflect the dietary perceptions of adolescents.
Many adolescents incorrectly classified their diets as healthy despite evidence of poor dietary habits.

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OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the perception of eating practices and the stages of change among adolescents.

METHODS: Cross-sectional study involving a representative sample of 390 adolescents from 11 public schools in the city of Piracicaba, Brazil, in 2004. Food consumption was identified by a food frequency questionnaire and the perception of eating practices evaluation was conducted by comparing food consumption and individual classification of healthy aspects of the diet. The participants were classified within stages of change by means of a specific algorithm. A reclassification within new stages of change was proposed to identify adolescents with similar characteristics regarding food consumption and perception.

RESULTS: Low consumption of fruit and vegetables and high consumption of sweets and fats were identified. More than 44% of the adolescents had a mistaken perception of their diet. A significant relationship between the stages of change and food consumption was observed. The reclassification among stages of change, through including the pseudo-maintenance and non-reflective action stages was necessary, considering the high proportion of adolescents who erroneously classified their diets as healthy.

CONCLUSION: Classification of the adolescents into stages of change, together with consumption and perception data, enabled identification of groups at risk, in accordance with their inadequate dietary habits and non-recognition of such habits.

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Perception of eating practices and stages of change among Brazilian adolescents

Abstract

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