Fat intake profile, socioeconomics status and anthropometric relationship among adults living in a Brazilian middle-town

Background: Over the last few years the dietary pattern of the Brazilian population has changed and these changes may represent important risk factors for health. Objective: Identify the influence of dietary fat profile on body mass index and waist circumference in a middle-class general population sample. Research design and methods: A cross-sectional study of 448 adults aged 35-85 years was carried out from January 2004 to December 2007. Patients were divided in two groups according to family income (G1: higher income and G2: lower income). Demographic and socioeconomic status were identified, along with anthropometric data, health eating index (HEI) and dietary profile. Statistic analysis were conducted with SAS for windows. T-tests were used to compare continuous variables; ANOVA and Tukey test were used to compare differences between quintiles of fat, and logistic regression analyses are presented as oddis ratios with 95% confiance interval. Results: The groups were similar with respect to gender, age, BMI and WC. HEI was higher in G1 due to a higher intake of protein (+12.8%), servings/day of dairy products (1.5 versus 0.8, p<0.001), higer intake of vegetables (1.5 versus 1.0, p<0.01), fruit (2.5 versus 0.0, p<0.001), and less dietary fat (-9.8%). The main contibution of fats were saturated fat for G1 (+5.0%) and PUFA for G2 (+14.4%). Conclusions: Besides differences in socioeconomic status, educational level and (deficient) HEI the groups were similar by presenting high BMI and abdominal fatness. Only differences in fat profile were correlated with the anthropometric measures mostly explained by the lower vegetable oil intake in higher income participants. Supported by FAPESP and CNPq.