Nutritional status, dietary intake, and eating behavior among adolescents in a private school in Curitiba, Brazil

Background: Adolescence encompasses biopsychosocial transitions. Changes are also expected about eating. Objective: to explore associations between nutritional status, food consumption, eating behavior and sociodemographic profile of adolescents from the eighth year of elementary school to the first year of high school at a private school in Curitiba-PR. Materials and Methods: crosssectional study. Questionnaires were applied regarding food consumption, eating behavior, sociodemographic profile. Anthropometry was performed, by measuring weight and height, to classify nutritional status by height/age and BMI/age, according to growth curves and zscore cutoff points, established by WHO. Results: 110 adolescents aged 14.15 +/- 0.88 years participated in the study, 50.91% (n=56) male and 64.54% (n=71) eutrophic. 68.18% (n=75) consumed sweets/treats the previous day. There was an association between disordered eating behavior dimensions and food consumption, relating "pleasure in eating" to consumption of fruits (p=0.030); greens/vegetables (p=0.031); sweetened drinks (p=0.048); and "desire for sweetened drinks" to consumption of instant noodles, packaged snacks and salty biscuits (p=0,043). Furthermore, "response to satiety" was associated with lower bean consumption (p=0.027) and weight status (p=0.016); and "food selectivity" was associated with lower consumption of vegetables (p=0.015). Conclusion: eating behavior was associated with weight status and food consumption, highlighting the importance of nutritional education, with an emphasis on the consumption of ultra-processed foods and the prevalence of overweight/obesity.