Comportamento alimentar infantil: comparação entre crianças sem e com excesso de peso em uma escola do município de Pelotas, RS

Abstract

ObjectiveTo evaluate differences in children's eating behavior as a function of their nutritional status, sex and age. MethodsMale and female children aged six to ten years were included. They were recruited from a private school in the city of Pelotas, southern Brazil, in 2012. Children's Eating Behaviour Questionnaire (CEBQ) subscales were used to assess eating behaviours: Food Responsiveness (FR), Enjoyment of Food (EF), Desire to Drink (DD), Emotional Overeating (EOE), Emotional Undereating (EUE), Satiety Responsiveness (SR), Fussiness (FF) and Slowness in Eating (SE). Age‐adjusted body mass index (BMI) z‐scores were calculated according to the WHO recommendations to assess nutritional status. ResultsThe study sample comprised 335 children aged 87.9±10.4 months and 49.3% were normal weight (n=163), 26% overweight (n=86), 15% obese (n=50) and 9.7% severely obese (n=32). Children with excessive weight showed higher scores on the CEBQ subscales associated with “food approach” (FR, EF, DD, EOE, p<0.001) and lower scores on two “food avoidance” subscales (SR and SE, p<0.001 and p=0.003, respectively) compared to normal weight children. Conclusions“Food approach” subscales were positively associated to excessive weight in children. Significant age and gender differences in eating behaviours were not found.