Acceptance of school food by Brazilian adolescents: individual and school context determinants

Abstract The scope of this study was to evaluate the acceptance of school food by Brazilian adolescents, taking individual and school context determinants into consideration. A total of 10,262 adolescents in public schools of the 2015 Brazilian National Survey of School Health (PeNSE 2015) were assessed. Multilevel regression was used to estimate the effect of variables of the individual context and the school environment on low acceptance of school food by adolescents. The prevalence of low acceptance (consumption of school meals ≤ 2 days/week) was 64.2% in this group. The explanatory model showed less acceptance of this practice among female adolescents (PR=1.09; CI: 1.03-1.14), among those aged 15 years or older (PR=1.08; CI: 1.02-1.14), those who regularly consumed soft drinks (PR=1.09; CI: 1.03-1.15), those who did not regularly have lunch and dinner with parents and guardians (PR=1.08; CI: 1.02-1.14), and those who lived in households with less than 4 people (PR=1.07; CI: 1.02-1.13). Concerning the school environment, studying in schools with more than 1,000 students (PR=1.22; CI: 1.12-1.33) and the presence of a cafeteria (PR=1.15; CI: 1.08-1.22) led to low acceptance. The results revealed the importance of the school context in determining the consumption of school meals by adolescents.