ACESSO AOS ALIMENTOS E SEGURANÇA ALIMENTAR E NUTRICIONAL: AVALIAÇÃO DA SITUAÇÃO EM MUNICÍPIOS BAIANOS

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the situation of the food and nutrition security at the municipalities of Bahia's State and the main determinants in the dimension of access to feeding. Methods: We applied a protocol of indicators that evaluates food and nutrition security covering four dimensions (availability, food access and consumption and biological use of nutrients). Secondary data from the Bahia's municipalities (available in public online databases) were used. Prevalence measures were calculated and associations were verified between the variables of the study. Results: In the municipalities evaluated, it was noted that 119 (28.7%) were in light Food Insecurity and 286 (69.1%) were in moderate Food Insecurity. For the Access to feeding dimension, there was a predominance of moderate Food Insecurity (71.5%) and the indicators that more contributed to this framework were the proportion of people with low income and percentage of population with 15 years or older and less than 4 years of schooling. There was a meaningful association between Food Insecurity in the municipalities, considering all the dimensions and the status of Food Insecurity at the dimension of Access to Food (p<0.000), and between the situation of Food Insecurity at the dimension of Access to Food and lowest Municipal Human Development Index (p<0.000). Conclusion: Although of the dimension Access to Food has strongly related to Food Insecurity, it did not show enough to explain it individually in Bahia's municipalities. The application of the protocol adopted can help managers to define strategical actions to face the problem. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]