Taxa de adequação (ingestão/requerimento) de energia como indicador do estado nutricional das famílias: uma análise crítica dos métodos aplicados em pesquisas de consumo de alimentos

Abstract

The authors discuss problems associated with the use of the energy adequacy ratio as an indicator of nutritional status in population-based studies derived from household food consumption surveys. They describe the use of food consumption data to estimate family energy intake and to compare it among families and with family requirements to determine the family energy adequacy ratio. The article also discusses the use of international recommendations for human energy requirements and their limitations, based on the lack of consideration of non-food conditions, adaptive mechanisms, inadequacy of estimates of the baseline metabolism rate, and the lack of information to evaluate energy expenditure in non-work physical activities in the household surveys consulted. To illustrate the discussion, the authors use data from the National Family Budget Survey (ENDEF) conducted by the Brazilian Census and Statistics Bureau (IBGE) in 1974-1975. The article concludes that the main use of the adequacy ratio is to identify families suffering food restriction.

Per capita versus adult-equivalent estimates of calorie availability in household budget surveys

“…Thus, the main differences between these scales relates to the individual used as the reference (reference adult) and the choice of the set of calorie requirements 8,9,10 .…”

“…The authors also observed that the per capita values tended to underestimate the real calorie availability. Use of the adultequivalent scale also reduced the variability in household calorie intake, proving to be the most precise method for estimating calorie consumption using household budget surveys 8 .…”

“…This choice may have reduced the estimated scale's precision (due to the gap between the calorie requirements used as the reference and the Brazilian population's real calorie needs), given the very nature of calculating these requirements 8,19 . Still, it is natural to believe that an adult-equivalent scale estimated from calorie requirement data estimated specifically for the Brazilian population would be similar to that estimated in our study.…”

“…However, few studies have focused on the use of adult-equivalent scales to assess dietary patterns 8,9,10 . The current study aims to estimate an adult-equivalent scale for calorie requirements and identify the magnitude of the resulting differences as compared to per capita measurements of calorie availability in the Brazilian population, according to different economic strata and geographic regions, using data from the Brazilian Household Budget Survey (HBS) 2002-2003 conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE).…”

Fontes de inadequação das recomendações internacionais sobre requerimentos humanos de energia para a população brasileira

“…Dentre as alternativas de valor de MC destacam-se: • a MC observada; • a MC de referência; • a MC saudável 15 . Vasconcellos e Anjos 16 indicam que o uso dos valores da MC observada é adequado aos estudos de seguridade e abastecimento alimentar de uma população, quando o objetivo é a determinação da demanda de energia proveniente dos alimentos. Os valores de referência são usados quando o objetivo é determinar requerimentos que assegurem, a todos, tamanho e composição corporais compatíveis com a boa saúde a longo prazo e um nível de atividade física socialmente desejável e economicamente necessário.…”