Obesidade e rotulagem de alimentos com a utilização de regressões quantílicas: um estudo da macrorregião sul do estado de Minas Gerais

Abstract

Currently, obesity has been a serious public health problem, constituting a worldwide epidemic responsible for several mortalities. The increase in body mass index can lead to serious health problems, such as cardiovascular, metabolic, neoplastic, orthopedic diseases, among others. Because it is caused by factors such as genetics, the social environment in which the individual is inserted, behavioral and metabolic factors, it can impact well-being, psychological and quality of life. Therefore, this research aims to analyze the impact of new regulations, which are regulatory measures RDC 359/2003, RDC 360/2003 and RDC 24/2010, relating to the prevalence of obesity in the adult population and to understand the impact of labeling of food through the quantile regression model. The research is of a quantitative nature, using a structured questionnaire from a sample of the South Region of Minas Gerais, in which it was intended to understand the relationships between acquisition and use of food products. To target the relationship, empirical studies were applied using quantile regression models, such analysis was performed using R software. The results indicate that reading ingredient labels has a negative association with BMI, especially in higher BMI quartiles (overweight and obesity). Individuals with a higher risk of overweight and obesity, such as people with low income, with low education or who do not practice sports, seem to obtain the greatest benefit from reading the ingredients on food labels. The study concluded that it is necessary to continue with government incentives in the part of nutritional labels, as they help to contribute against obesity, another result obtained in the research was that as age advances, there is a greater risk of obesity in addition to the lack of schooling, therefore it is necessary to have public policies that encourage studies and projects aimed at the elderly in the pursuit of conscious food education. However, findings on the effectiveness of using labels to decrease negative health outcomes such as overweight and obesity are mixed. As most studies focus on estimating the average effects of labels, little is known whether labels have any effect on the tails of the body weight distribution, which, given the social gradient of obesity, often includes at-risk groups. Furthermore, the use of labels, overweight and obesity vary across population subgroups.