FREQUENCY OF MEALS CONSUMED BY BRAZILIAN ADOLESCENTS AND ASSOCIATED HABITS: SYSTEMATIC REVIEW.

Objective: To analyze the studies that identified the frequency of meals ingested by Brazilian adolescents and associated habits.

Data Sources: A systematic search was made in the databases and electronic databases: MEDLINE/PubMed, The Latin American and Caribbean Center of Information in Health Sciences (BIREME), Scopus, Web of Science and Embase, with articles published between January/2007 until December/2017, which addressed the evaluation of the frequency of meals performed by adolescents, considering or not associations with eating patterns and meal replacement.

Data Synthesis: 6,608 studies were obtained through the search and nine were included in this review, all of them with a cross-sectional design. Eight studies used school surveys and only one was a population survey. Seven studies evaluated the frequency of the main daily meals that ranged from 47.0 to 79.0% at breakfast, from 65.0 to 98.4% at lunch, and from 51.0 to 94.0% at dinner. Five studies identified the frequencies of consumption of snacks between meals, finding higher values for afternoon snack (variation from 42.0 to 78.0%). Regarding the substitution of meals for snacks, in three of the four selected studies; it was observed that this practice occurred mainly in substitution of dinner (24.6 to 42.0%).

Conclusions: Breakfast was the most omitted meal for adolescents, and dinner was replaced with snacks. Among the between meal snacks, the afternoon snack was the most consumed.