Hábito alimentar e estilo de vida associados às mudanças no estado nutricional após quatro anos em adolescentes finlandeses

Abstract

The nutritional status of adolescents is considered a determinant of the nutritional situation in adulthood, both overweight and underweight in adolescence pose risks for the development ofcomorbidities. The more sedentary lifestyle with high screen time, little physical activity, inadequate diet, body dissatisfaction in addition to genetic factors has been associated with overweight. While underweight has been associated with higher rates of morbidity and mortality. However, little is known about how these factors are associated with weight changes in adolescence. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the association of some behaviours related to energy imbalance at baseline and changes in body weight after four years of follow-up in Finnish adolescents. For this purpose, we considered 5,099 Finnish adolescents, aged between 9 and 14 years, from the Cohort Finish Health in Teens (Fin-HIT), recruited in the period from 2011 to 2014. We applied a Multinomial Logistic Regression to verify the association between eating habits, breakfast consumption, physical activity, screen time, and children’s Body Mass Index changes categories. Most adolescents maintained their body size as regularly normal weight (67.2%), 9.6% were regularly overweight, 7.6% were regularly underweight at, 4.8% changed to overweight, and 10.8% changed to normal weight at followup. The odds ratio (OR) of being regularly underweight when compared to regularly normal weight is 34% higher for children avoiding fruits and vegetables when compared to those with healthy eating habits (OR=1.34; 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.07-1.68). Meanwhile, when compared to regularly normal weight, the OR of “changed to overweight” is 51% higher for adolescents with more than 2h per day of screen time use for TV, videos and DVD (OR=1.51; CI: 1.06-2.14), and among girls, the chance was 80% higher (OR=1.80, CI: 1.11-2.93) when compared to those with less than 2h. Irregular breakfast consumption (OR=1.47; CI: 1.15-1.86) and less physical activity (OR=2.01; CI: 1.51–2.68) and high screen time on computer, internet and video game (OR = 1.43; CI: 1.07–1.91) were associated with children’s regularly overweight. Thus, the study concludes that irregular breakfast consumption, low physical activity and high screen time are harmful behaviours that increase the adolescent's chance of remaining overweight in adolescence. In addition, screen time, specifically watching videos and TV, has made a substantial contribution to changing adolescents to being overweight. Furthermore, lack of consumption of fruits and vegetables was associated with adolescents with underweight in the follow-up