Score of ultra-processed food consumption and its association with sociodemographic factors in the Brazilian National Health Survey, 2019

Abstract

This is a cross-sectional population-based study that describes the score of ultra-processed food consumption, applied in the Brazilian National Health Survey performed in 2019, and its association with sociodemographic factors in Brazilian adults (18 years or older). The score of ultra-processed food consumption was calculated by adding up the positive answers about the consumption on the previous day of 10 subgroups of ultra-processed foods frequently consumed in Brazil. The distribution of the score in the population was presented as a count. Poisson regression models were used to evaluate the crude and adjusted associations of scores equal to or higher than five subgroups of ultra-processed foods with urban/rural area, geographic region, sex, age group, schooling level, and wealth index. About 15% of the Brazilian adults reached scores equal to or higher than five. After adjustment for confounders, the prevalence of consuming five or more subgroups of ultraprocessed foods decreased linearly with age, increased linearly with wealth quintiles and it was higher in urban areas, in the Southeast and South regions (compared to the others) and in men. Public policies that reduce the consumption of ultra-processed foods with emphasis on strata of the population at the greatest risk are essential and monitoring the score of ultra-processed food consumption across studies and populations will be important to assess the success of these policies.