Objective: To determine whether household food insecurity (HFI) is associated with a higher prevalence of excessive weight (EW) in a large random sample of Brazilian female adolescents.
Design: Nationally representative cross-sectional study. EW was the outcome variable (BMI = 85th percentile of WHO reference for adolescents aged 15–18 years and BMI = 25 kg/m2 for those aged 19 years). HFI was measured with the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale. Associations were measured using crude and adjusted prevalence ratios (PR) with 95 % confidence intervals through Poisson regression models taking into account the complex sampling design.
Setting: Data were derived from the third wave of the Demographic and Health Survey conducted in 2006–2007, in Brazil.
Subjects: The sample included 1529 female adolescents aged 15–19 years.
Results: The prevalence of any level of HFI was 40·8 %, with 26·6 % of households experiencing mild, 9·4 % moderate and 4·8 % severe food insecurity. The overall prevalence of EW was 21·9 % (12·9 % were overweight and 9·0 % obese). EW prevalence among those living in severely, moderately and mildly food-insecure households was 36·8 %, 14·9 % and 16·5 %, respectively (P for the overall association = 0·036). Women living in severely food-insecure households had an increased prevalence of EW compared with their food-secure counterparts (PR = 1·96; 95 % CI 1·18, 3·27; P = 0·007), after adjusting for important confounders.
Conclusions: The study suggests that severe but not mild or moderate HFI is independently associated with EW among adolescents residing in Brazil, a middle-income country undergoing the nutrition transition.