This study aimed to identify meal and snack patterns in Brazilian schoolchildren and assess their stability over 3 years. This is a repeated cross-sectional study carried out in 2013, 2014 and 2015 with 6353 schoolchildren aged 7-12 years from public schools in Florianópolis, Brazil. Previous-day food consumption data for six pre-defined meals (breakfast, mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, dinner and evening snack) were collected using the validated Web-CAAFE (Food Consumption and Physical Activity of Schoolchildren) questionnaire. Latent class analysis was performed to derive meal and snack patterns. The stability of patterns was analysed using multinomial logistic regression, and the probability of belonging to a meal pattern was calculated for each year. Three patterns were identified for breakfast and four patterns for a mid-morning snack, lunch, mid-afternoon snack, dinner and evening snack. Most meal and snack patterns were stable over the 3-year evaluation period. In the total sample, for a mid-afternoon snack, there was an increase in the probability of the children belonging to the 'Fruits and porridge' pattern (14.5%, 95% CI 12%-17% in 2015 vs. 9.2%, 95% CI 6.8%-11.7% in 2013) and a reduction in the 'Ultra-processed' pattern (42.5%, 95% CI 39.4%-45.6% in 2015 vs. 51.3%, 95% CI 46.5%-56.1% in 2013). These results appear to be in line with the recommendations of the Brazilian Dietary Guidelines and regional policies to increase the intake of healthy foods and limit that of ultra-processed, high fat, sugar and salt foods.
Keywords: children; dietary pattern; latent class analysis; meals; panel study; snacks.
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