Consumption of soft drinks among students from early grades in the city of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Objective: To describe the daily consumption of soft drinks among students from the 1st to the 4th year from public primary schools in the city of Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul. Materials and Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study, with a quantitative approach, including 356 students from the 1st to the 4th year in the urban area of the city, in 2011. The outcome of this study was the daily consumption of soft drinks as was evaluated trough the Form Labels Food Consumption System proposed by the Food and Nutrition Surveillance. The frequency of consumption was described according to gender, age, maternal education, socio-economic level and students’ nutritional state. We analyzed the prevalence and its 95% confidence intervals, adopting the significance level of 5%. Results: Of the 411 students eligible for the study, 356 were evaluated, with 13.4% of losses and refusals. The prevalence of daily consumption of soft drinks was 21.6%. There were no statistically significant differences in daily consumption of soft drinks between sexes, age, classes of consumer goods and nutritional state. Conclusion: The students of the public primary schools of Pelotas showed a high prevalence of daily consumption of soft drinks. Therefore, we emphasize the importance of nutritional education in schools.