Prevalence and sociodemographic distribution of healthy eating markers, National Health Survey, Brazil 2013

Objective: to describe the prevalence of healthy eating markers and their association with sociodemographic variables among Brazilian adults. Methods: cross-sectional descriptive study using data from the National Health Survey (PNS 2013) conducted in 64,348 households. Healthy eating markers were regular consumption of beans and fish and recommended consumption of fruit and vegetables. Prevalence (%) of these markers and their 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) were estimated. Results: regular bean consumption was reported by 71.9% (95%CI: 71.2-72.6), fruit and vegetables by 37.3% (95%CI: 36.4-38.1) and fish by 54.6% (95%CI: 53.7-55.5) of the population. Food marker distribution was influenced by age, sex, schooling, ethnicity and place of residence of respondents. Conclusion: the findings confirmed a high prevalence of consumption of beans, fish and fruit and vegetables in the diet of Brazilian adults.