Impacto dos rótulos nutricionais e da publicidade no comportamento alimentar da população do Sul de Minas Gerais

Abstract

Policies aimed at reducing and controlling the excess weight of the entire population in Brazil are essential to reduce obesogenic environments. Therefore, a set of interventions is needed to change health-related behaviors that involve altering the physical environment, including interventions that use text, symbols and images to convey specific information about products and their use, with nutrition labeling and advertising of food an example. This study aimed to analyze the impact of advertising and food labeling on eating behavior, relating it to the prevalence of obesity and the health of the population. The research was conducted in two phases: in the first, the integrative review was used as a review method based on the PICO search strategy

and, in the second, a study with an exploratory descriptive research design, cross- sectional, with a cross-sectional approach. quantitative, with application of a

questionnaire to the population residing in the Southern Macro-region of the state of Minas Gerais. In the integrative review, after an exploratory and selective reading, 36 articles were found that agreed with the objectives of this study. It was possible to verify that labels can be a potent source in the management of healthy food choices for people with chronic non-communicable diseases. It was observed that the most efficient labeling to change eating behavior was the labeling that uses a warning/warning system, due to the ease of understanding and its potential to change eating habits in the medium and long term by discouraging the consumption of a food. In the observational study, the sample consisted of 580 people, of which 59.0% were classified as overweight and 80.2% were female. Of the participants, 61.4% were not in the habit of reading labels and had difficulty understanding. An association was found between the use of nutritional labels and their understanding, as well as an inverse relationship between the Body Mass Index and the use of the internet as a source of information. After adjusting for confounding variables, the following factors remained associated with obesity: the fact that the individual was older (OR: 3.561, CI 95% 1.93-6.72); with the highest number of family dependents (OR: 1.779, CI 95% 1.17-2.73, p=0.007) and those who used the services of Basic Health Units (OR=2.007; CI: 95% 1, 22-3.33; p=0.006).. The results revealed that the use of nutrition labels and food advertisements interfere with purchase intention. Further investigations are needed on the influence of food advertising and the use of new social media in its interference with the Body Mass Index, thus ascertaining the nutritional status.