Influence of the media in food habits and in the nutritional state of children of a municipality of Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

Introduction: Television media has been used as a great means of communication aimed at promoting processed and ultra-processed foods. Objective: To evaluate the influence of the media on the eating habits and nutritional status of pre-school children and schoolchildren in a city of Rio Grande do Sul. Materials and methods: The sample consisted of 175 children between five and 10 years old enrolled in municipal and state schools in a municipality in Vale do Taquari-RS, between March and December 2018. For the data collection, a questionnaire related to the media and eating habits was used, which was sent to the households to be answered by parents or guardians. The assessment of nutritional status included the measurement of the weight and height of the children using the growth curves of the World Health Organization (2006/2007). It was possible to observe that more than 1/3 of the children evaluated asked for or sometimes asked to buy food and / or drinks they saw on television, 41.7% of the parents sometimes bought food and / or drinks, influenced by images of characters or your child's favorite artists, and that eutrophic children spent less time in front of the television. Still, children's high weight was associated with the purchase of canned food under the influence of television, and parents bought chocolate milk and yogurts for children who spent more than 1,000 minutes a week in front of the television. It is concluded that there is influence of the media on the eating habits and nutritional status of the children evaluated.