Healthy Habits, Healthy Girls: intervention strategies in healthy eating and family meals for adolescents attending technical schools

INTRODUCTION: Family meals (FM) are considered meals that family are together and focus their attention in a common experience to turn the meal, in special, making a conversation at the same time. Family meals have an important role in the acquision of adequate eating habits. OBJECTIVE: Identify factors that contribute for family meal practices, their impact in dietary intake and assess the intervention with multiple components that promoted changes in eating habits in adolescents and family environment meals. METHODS: The Healthy Habits, Healthy Girls Brazil is a randomized controlled trial with 253 adolescent girls from technical schools of São Paulo. It was bases on the Social Cognitive Theory and used multiple components such as instructional materials, seminars and nutrition workshops, Whatsapp® messages. RESULTS: Adolescents realized on average 5.04±er0.20 FM per week, the practice for regular FM were associated to vigorous physical activity (p=0.024), availability of vegetables during meals (p=0.037) and among others the choices for foods reduced in fats (p<0.001). 26 motivational messages were sent, and promoted 503 interactions. CONCLUSIONS: Regular FM presents a great influence on the environment, and after the intervention there was a change on meals and enhanced intake of fruits and vegetables. Exposure the girls to different methodologies with social cognitive approaches, was important, specially, for promoting action chances.