Dietary patterns of children living in slums and their associated factors: a cross-sectional study, 2019-2022.

Objective: To identify dietary patterns and analyze factors associated with the consumption profile of socially vulnerable children, Maceió, state of Alagoas, Brazil, August 2019 to December 2021.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study; sociodemographic, anthropometric and food consumption variables were collected, factor analysis was used to identify dietary patterns; associations were analyzed using Poisson regression.

Results: Among the 567 children studied, two dietary patterns were identified, healthy and unhealthy; age ≥ 24 months (PR = 2.75; 95%CI 1.83;4.14), male gender (PR = 0.66; 95%CI 0.49;0.87) and maternal schooling ≤ 9 years (PR = 0.61; 95%CI 0.46;0.81) was higher in the healthy pattern; the unhealthy pattern was associated with age ≥ 24 months (PR = 1.02; 95%CI 1.01;1.03) and male gender (PR = 1.46; 95%CI 1.08;1.98).

Conclusion: The healthy pattern was more frequent in children aged ≥ 24 months, less frequent in male children and mothers with low level of schooling; children aged ≥ 24 months and males showed a higher prevalence of the unhealthy pattern.

Main results: Two dietary patterns were defined, healthy and "unhealthy", which were associated with male gender, age ≥ 24 months and maternal schooling ≤ 9 years of study.

Implications for services: The study data can assist health professionals dedicated to primary healthcare services, such as nutritionists, in planning interventions to promote healthy eating habits aimed at children.

Perspectives: Prospective studies with these populations are necessary to assess the causality of the associations found in this study, aiming to plan more effective public health actions.