11^th European Nutrition and Dietetics Conference

Biography

Biography: Ana Gabriella P Alves

Abstract

Statement of the problem: Obesity, especially abdominal, is one of the major public health problems in the world. In this regard, studies have observed protective effects of some nutrients on obesity, including calcium, due to its supposed action in the regulation of lipid metabolism in adipocytes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between calcium intake and abdominal obesity in Brazilian adults. Methodology: this cross- sectional study was developed in March 2016 with 31
subjects from Santo Antônio de Goiás, Central-West region of Brazil. The waist circumference (WC) was measured    with    anthropometric    inextensible    tape (Sanny®, São Paulo, Brazil) at the midpoint between the lowest rib and the iliac crest. Women with WC ≥ 80cm and men with WC ≥ 94cm were classified with increased WC. To obtain average calcium intake, three 24-hour dietary recalls were collected on non-consecutive days, including one day of the weekend. Student’s t-test for independent samples was used to evaluate the difference in calcium intake between adults with adequate and increased WC. Binary logistic regression was used to analyze the association between WC and calcium intake. P values <0.05 were considered significant. This research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Federal University of Goiás, Brazil. Findings: Of the 31 participants, 96.8% were female and the mean age was 41.39 (± 11,36) years. There was a higher calcium intake among subjects with adequate WC (p = 0.002) (Table 1). In addition, the lower is the calcium intake, higher is the chance of having increased WC (p= 0.022) (Table 2). Conclusion:   Considering   the   association   between calcium intake and waist circumference, the consumption of foods rich in this mineral needs to be encouraged, which may contribute to reduce public health problems like obesity and associated morbidities.