Published in:
01-09-2016 | Original Contribution
Dietary patterns are associated with excess weight and abdominal obesity in a cohort of young Brazilian adults
Published in: European Journal of Nutrition | Issue 6/2016
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Purpose
The objective of the present study was to investigate whether dietary patterns are associated with excess weight and abdominal obesity among young adults (23–25 years).
Methods
A cross-sectional study was conducted on 2061 participants of a birth cohort from Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, started in 1978–1979. Twenty-seven subjects with caloric intake outside ±3 standard deviation range were excluded, leaving 2034 individuals. Excess weight was defined as body mass index (BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2), abdominal obesity as waist circumference (WC > 80 cm for women; >90 cm for men) and waist/hip ratio (WHR > 0.85 for women; >0.90 for men). Poisson regression with robust variance adjustment was used to estimate the prevalence ratio (PR) adjusted for socio-demographic and lifestyle variables. Four dietary patterns were identified by principal component analysis: healthy, traditional Brazilian, bar and energy dense.
Results
In the adjusted analysis, the bar pattern was associated with a higher prevalence of excess weight (PR 1.46; 95 % CI 1.23–1.73) and abdominal obesity based on WHR (PR 2.19; 95 % CI 1.59–3.01). The energy-dense pattern was associated with a lower prevalence of excess weight (PR 0.73; 95 % CI 0.61–0.88). Men with greater adherence to the traditional Brazilian pattern showed a lower prevalence of excess weight (PR 0.65; 95 % CI 0.51–0.82), but no association was found for women. There was no association between the healthy pattern and excess weight/abdominal obesity.
Conclusions
In this sample, the bar pattern was associated with higher prevalences of excess weight and abdominal obesity, while the energy-dense (for both genders) and traditional Brazilian (only for men) patterns were associated with lower prevalences of excess weight.