Association of eating patterns and abdominal adiposity in Brazilian

ABSTRACT Objective To examine the relationship between dietary patterns and abdominal adiposity among adults living in the urban area of Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Methods A population-based, cross-sectional study of 959 adults of both sexes. Information on sociodemographic characteristics and dietary intake was collected through questionnaires. Abdominal adiposity was evaluated using waist circumference and the anthropometric indices waist-to-hip ratio and waist-to-height ratio. Food patterns were identified by factor analysis. Poisson regression was used for multivariate analysis. Results Abdominal adiposity was identified by waist circumference in 59.06% (95%CI=52.77–65.08) of the sample, by waist-to-hip ratio in 54.65% (95%CI=47.92–61.21), and by waist-to-height ratio in 9% (95%CI=54.61–69.03). Two dietary patterns, named as traditional Brazilian and bar, were identified in the sample, but only the latter was statistically associated with abdominal adiposity determined by the three parameters. Conclusion The study identified two eating patterns in the population, a healthy and an unhealthy pattern, the latter being associated with greater odds of abdominal adiposity. Thus, it is important to take measures to reverse this trend.