Dietary patterns of children living in slums and their associated factors: a cross-sectional study, 2019-2022

To identify dietary patterns and analyze factors associated with the consumption profile of socially vulnerable children, Maceió, state of Alagoas, Brazil, August 2019 to December 2021.

This was a cross-sectional study; sociodemographic, anthropometric and food consumption variables were collected, factor analysis was used to identify dietary patterns; associations were analyzed using Poisson regression.

Among the 567 children studied, two dietary patterns were identified, healthy and unhealthy; age ≥ 24 months (PR = 2.75; 95%CI 1.83;4.14), male gender (PR = 0.66; 95%CI 0.49;0.87) and maternal schooling ≤ 9 years (PR = 0.61; 95%CI 0.46;0.81) was higher in the healthy pattern; the unhealthy pattern was associated with age ≥ 24 months (PR = 1.02; 95%CI 1.01;1.03) and male gender (PR = 1.46; 95%CI 1.08;1.98).

The healthy pattern was more frequent in children aged ≥ 24 months, less frequent in male children and mothers with low level of schooling; children aged ≥ 24 months and males showed a higher prevalence of the unhealthy pattern.

Two dietary patterns were defined, healthy and "unhealthy", which were associated with male gender, age ≥ 24 months and maternal schooling ≤ 9 years of study.

The study data can assist health professionals dedicated to primary healthcare services, such as nutritionists, in planning interventions to promote healthy eating habits aimed at children.

Prospective studies with these populations are necessary to assess the causality of the associations found in this study, aiming to plan more effective public health actions.