Brazilian Healthy Eating Index Revised (BHEI-R) of women before and during adjuvant treatment for breast cancer

Introduction: Different therapeutic modalities for cancer trigger side effects that affect the selection of food by changing dietary patterns. Aims: To evaluate changes in the diet quality of women in adjuvant treatment for breast cancer. Methods: Sociodemographic, clinical and anthropometric data of 78 women were collected. The Brazilian Healthy Eating Index Revised and its components were obtained from food frequency questionnaire applied before and after the treatment. At baseline, participants were classified according to tertiles of diet quality. Results and Discussion: The score of the Brazilian Healthy Eating Index Revised (BHEI-R) in the lowest tertile was 48.4 to 75.2 points, the second tertile was 75.7 to 81.8 points, and the upper tertile was 82.0 to 95.7 points. During treatment, of the women classified in the first tertile, 62% improved their diet score quality passing to the upper tertiles. Women classified in the second tertile, did not significantly alter the diet quality during the treatment, although 46% went to the third tertile. Patients classified in the third tertile significantly reduced the average score of the Index by 7.3 points during the treatment. Among these women, 38% and 20% decreased their score for the second and first tertiles respectively, where the reduction in the diet quality was due to reducing the score of components Total fruits, Total vegetables, Dark Green and orange vegetables and Legumes, Total grains and Solid fats, Alcohol and Added sugar. Conclusion: Dietary changes, which were observed after breast cancer diagnosis, significantly altered the quality of diet among the women participating in the study. Future nutrition interventions are important to aid in food choices during the treatment.