May Obesity and Nutritional Knowledge Influence the Assessing Energy Intake Underreporting in Adults?

Aims: Investigate the influence of the nutrition knowledge and nutritional status in the assessing energy intake underreporting.

Methodology: It’s a cross-sectional study in 52 adults treated in an ambulatory. The nutritional knowledge was measured through the Nutritional Knowledge Scale. The anthropometric data analyzed were: waist circumference, height and weight. The food consumption was checked by three recalls of 24 hours. The resting metabolic rate was calculated by the Mifflin’s formula, and the assessing energy intake underreporting was calculated after Goldberg’s formula. Statistical analysis was performed by the “Bioestat 5.0” program and the Chi Square test for trend was used to evaluate the association between variables (p≤0,05).

Results: The studied group showed an average age of 38,90±9,52. The assessing energy intake underreporting was noted in 92,3% of the sample. It was observed that the average energy intake related (1583,27±575,29 Kcal) was less than the average of the resting metabolic rate (1802,71±227,02 Kcal). Higher values of IMC (A = 0,153; p = 0,85) and in waist circumference (A = 2,769; p = 0,05) were associated with the increase of the assessing energy intake underreporting. In the other hand, there was a decreasing tendency (A = - 0,384; p = 0,750) in the association between energetic underreporting and nutritional knowledge.

Conclusion: It was observed a higher tendency of assessing energy intake underreporting between individuals with higher IMC and waist circumference and lower nutritional knowledge.