Revista de Saúde Pública (Feb 2011)
Avaliação de programa de prevenção de obesidade em adolescentes de escolas públicas Evaluación de programa de prevención de obesidad en adolescentes de escuelas públicas Evaluation of an obesity prevention program in adolescents of public schools
Abstract
OBJETIVO: Avaliar os efeitos de um programa de prevenção de obesidade sobre práticas alimentares de adolescentes de escolas públicas. MÉTODOS: Intervenção com 331 estudantes de 11 a 17 anos de 5º e 6º anos de duas escolas públicas estaduais de Niterói, RJ, em 2005. As escolas foram classificadas em escola de intervenção (EI) e escola de controle (EC) para comparação. Práticas alimentares foram abordadas em questionários auto-respondidos antes e após o período de intervenção: consumo de fast food, consumo de refrigerantes, substituição de refeições por lanches, consumo de frutas, verduras e legumes e tipo de alimentação consumida nos intervalos das aulas. Testes qui-quadrado e McNemar foram aplicados para comparar proporções, considerando valor de p OBJETIVO: Evaluar los efectos de un programa de prevención de obesidad sobre prácticas alimentarias de adolescentes de escuelas públicas. MÉTODOS: Intervención con 331 estudiantes de 11 a 17 años de 5ª y 6ª anos de dos escuelas públicas estatales de Niterói, Sureste de Brasil, en 2005. Las escuelas fueron clasificadas en escuela de intervención (EI) y escuela de control (EC) para comparación. Prácticas alimentarias fueron abordadas en cuestionarios auto-respondidos antes y después del período de intervención: consumo de fast food, consumo de gaseosas, sustitución de comidas por meriendas, consumo de frutas, verduras y legumbres y tipo de alimentación consumida en los intervalos de las clases. Pruebas chi-cuadrado y McNemar se aplicaron para comparar proporciones, considerando valor de pOBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effects of an obesity prevention program on the dietary practices of public school adolescents. METHODS: An intervention was conducted with 331 students aged between 11 and 17 years, enrolled in the 5th and 6th grades of two state public schools in the city of Niterói, Southeastern Brazil, in 2005. These schools were categorized into "intervention schools" (IS) and "control schools" (CS) for comparison. Dietary practices were analyzed using self-administered questionnaires before and after the intervention period: fast food consumption; soft drink consumption; replacement of meals for snacks; consumption of fruits and vegetables; and type of food consumed during school breaks. Chi-square test and McNemar's test were applied to compare proportions, considering a value of p <0.05. RESULTS: In the baseline, 185 students participated in the IS (82.2% of those eligible) and 146 students participated in the CS (70.5% of those eligible). In the post-intervention phase, there was a loss of 10.3% of IS adolescents and 27.4% of CS ones. There were no significant changes in dietary practices in CS. In contrast, IS showed an increase in the proportion of students who reported not consuming snacks sold by street vendors (from 36.7% to 50.6%; p=0.02) and adolescents who reported not replacing their lunch (from 44.5% to 65.2%; p<0.01) and dinner (from 38.4% to 54.3%; p<0.01) for snacks. The main favorable change was the reduction in the frequency of consumption of fast food snacks in IS, when compared to CS (from 72.7% to 54.4%; p=0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Favorable changes in the adolescents' dietary practices were found and they encourage the implementation of programs of this nature. However, long-lasting interventions need to be implemented and evaluated in terms of their effectiveness.
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