Food environment, social deprivation and obesity among students from Brazilian public schools.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between social deprivation and the food environment. Furthermore, to evaluate if the food environment is associated with the prevalence of obesity among students in Brazilian public schools.

Design: Cross-sectional. For the classification of obesity, weight and height were measured, and the cut-off point of BMI-for-age Z-score >+2 was adopted. Social deprivation level was determined from the Health Vulnerability Index (HVI). To assess the food environment, the density of food establishments in urban residential areas was calculated. Associations between the food environment and the presence of obesity were estimated by binary logistic regression through a generalized estimating equations model.

Setting: Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Subjects: Children and adolescents (n 661) aged 7-14 years.

Results: The lowest social deprivation level showed a higher density of all types of establishments that sold predominantly unhealthy foods. An inverse association was found between the density of supermarkets and hypermarkets and the presence of obesity (OR=0·58; 95 % CI 0·36, 0·93). For the other categories of food retailers, no significant differences were found.

Conclusions: The findings reinforce the need for public policies that promote equality in the food environments of the city. Also, further investigations into the influence of the presence of supermarkets on the nutritional status of children and adolescents are required.