Self-rated diet quality according to adolescents: ISACamp-Nutri results

The aim was to estimate the prevalence of categories of self-rated diet quality according to adolescents, identify the reasons for not considering the diet very good/good as well as calculate the global Revised Brazilian Healthy Eating Index Revised (BHEI-r) score and component scores according to the self-assessment categories. A cross-sectional population-based study with two-stage stratified cluster sampling was conducted in Campinas-SP. A total of 891 adolescents were analyzed. The proportions of very good/good, fair and poor/very poor self-rated diet quality were 57.3%, 34.6% and 8.1%, respectively. Fair/poor/very poor self-rated diet quality was associated with the consumption of candy/sweets, snacks/cookies, whole grains (10-14 years) and fast food (15-19 years). Among those classified as having poor diet quality (1st tertile of BHEI-r scores), 52.5% considered their diet to be very good/good and only 13.1% considered their diet to be poor/very poor. The BHEI-r score was significantly lower among those who thought their diet was poor (50.0 points) compared to those who thought their diet was very good/good (55.4 points). Those who considered their diet to be poor had lower intakes of fruit and whole grains as well as higher intakes of solid fats and sugars. The findings reveal incoherence between self-rated diet quality and the observed unsatisfactory diet scores.