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Overweight in adolescence is considered a public health problem because of the immediate implications on physical, social and mental health, and long-term effects, such as the development of non-communicable chronic diseases in adulthood(1). The prevalence of overweight in Brazilian adolescents is increasing. According to a previous study on the cardiovascular risk factors in adolescents, 25·5 % of the Brazilian adolescents are overweight(2). Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated the importance of dietary habits in the development of overweight and disease(3–5). Inadequate dietary habits may favour the weight gain and lead to the development of overweight(6).
Most dietary habits are formed and established during adolescence. This is considered a risk period for the development of overweight(7). Diet is a process that involves the consumption of different foods or food groups simultaneously, with a complex interaction between nutrients; a study on dietary patterns will help determine the effect of the combination of foods and nutrients on health outcomes and disease(8,9).
Therefore, identifying the dietary patterns of adolescents and their longitudinal association with nutritional status is important to determine the impact of dietary habits on nutritional status, over time, and to ensure that interventions and policies in the prevention of excess weight are developed. However, studies that assess the dietary patterns and nutritional status of adolescents in Brazil are limited, and most have a cross-sectional design(10,11). No previous longitudinal studies have examined the impact of dietary patterns on the nutritional status of adolescent students in Brazil.
Accordingly, this study aimed to identify dietary patterns and evaluate their influence on the nutritional status of adolescents participating in a longitudinal study in a city of Northeast Brazil.
Methods
A longitudinal epidemiological study was conducted using the data from the Longitudinal Study on Sedentary Behavior, Physical Activity, Dietary Habits and Health of Adolescents (LONCAAFS), which started in 2014. The LONCAAFS was conducted in sixth-grade adolescents, aged 10 to 14 years (mean 12·02 years), from the public schools (municipal and state) in the municipality of João Pessoa. The sample was monitored annually until 2017 in order to analyse the inter-relationships between sedentary behaviour, physical activity, diet and health.
The following parameters were taken into account to calculate the sample...