Consumo de alimentos ultraprocessados por crianças e adolescentes com diabetes mellitus tipo 1

Abstract

Diabetes, regardless of category, is one of the fastest growing global health emergencies of the 21st century. With regard to type 1 diabetes, Brazil ranks third in terms of the world's incidence of the disease. With technological advances, the life expectancy of people with type 1 diabetes has progressively increased, however, these patients still have premature mortality. Thus, considering the genetic character for the development of type 1 diabetes and, therefore, the need to focus on factors that prevent its complications, especially those related to lifestyle and diet, are extremely important. The objective was to investigate the consumption of ultraprocessed foods (UPA) in a pediatric population with type 1 diabetes mellitus and its association with socioeconomic, lifestyle, glycemic control and inflammation factors. This is a cross-sectional study, using convenience sampling, with individuals of both sexes and aged between 3 and 17 years old, assisted by the pediatric endocrinology clinic of a hospital located in Vitória/ES. Through a semi-structured questionnaire, personal and health data and anthropometric measurements were collected. Three 24-hour recalls were also applied, at 3 different times. For statistical analysis, Student's t test was used, p<0.05. Of the 63 participants assessed, 9.5% were preschoolers, 30.2% schoolchildren and 60.3% adolescents. Still on the characterization of the population, it was observed that the majority of participants were female (63.5%) and black/brown (77.8%). The average general age corresponded to 10.60±4 years. The average energy consumption of ultra-processed foods by the studied population corresponded to 19.2%±14.9%. When evaluating the association between the outcome variable (consumption of ultra-processed foods) and socioeconomic variables, we found no statistically significant difference, except for maternal education (p= 0.027). When evaluating the association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and lifestyle variables, there was no statistical difference: level of physical activity (p= 0.927), time of daily exposure to screens (p= 0.981), screen time after 6 pm (p = 0.240) and consumption of fruits/vegetables/legumes (p= 0.315). For this study, it was observed that there was no association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and body mass index: z-score (p= 0.994), waist:height ratio (p= 0.979), neck circumference (p= 0.819 ). On the other hand, with regard to the percentage of fat, we observed that there was significance between the average consumption of ultra-processed foods and this 7 variable (p= 0.001). In short, the results of the present study confirm the need for early and comprehensive clinical-nutritional treatment of children and adolescents living with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Furthermore, we believe that the data found may contribute to the reformulation of preventive public health policies and for more effective methods of clinical management of the disease, with a view to the quality of life and longevity of the population with type 1 diabetes mellitus.