Family meals, diet quality and obesity among adolescents: findings from a school-based study in a capital city of southern Brazil.

Background: This study investigates the association of family meals with diet quality and obesity of adolescents in public schools in Curitiba, Brazil.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in 30 schools. Having family meals was analyzed as a continuous variable (weekly frequency of lunch and dinner). The association among having family meals and diet quality and obesity was investigated using the binomial negative regression, which resulted in Prevalence Ratios (PR) with Confidence Intervals of 95% (95% CI).

Results: The study included 1623 students were invited to participate, 1232 accepted and 1036 answered all information required. A percentage of 58.3% and 62.0% of the adolescents reported having daily lunch and dinner as a family, respectively; 47.8% of them had both meals. Family meals were less frequent among 17-years-old or older (PR 0.83 95% CI: 0.74-0.94), among those who had a job (PR 0.85 95% CI: 0.77-0.93), among those that had consumed alcohol (PR 0.86 95% CI: 0.80-0.92). In contrast, family meals were more frequent among students who have breakfast every day (PR 1.06 95% CI: 1.01-1.11). Moreover, family meals were a protective factor against overweight (PR 0.81 95% CI: 0.70-0.93) and obesity (PR 0.81 95% CI: 0.70-0.93) and were associated with higher scores on the diet quality index (PR 1.01 95% CI: 1.00-1.02).

Conclusions: The study highlights that family meals were an important factor in the prevention of becoming overweight and in the improvement of diet quality, and should be encouraged among adolescents, especially the older ones.