Title:	Neofobia alimentar em crianças brasileiras no contexto da neurodiversidade
Authors:	Almeida, Priscila Claudino de
Orientador(es)::	Botelho, Raquel Braz Assunção
Assunto::	Neofobia alimentar Prevalência Crianças Cuidadores
Issue Date:	24-Nov-2025
Data de defesa::	21-Jan-2025
Citation:	ALMEIDA, Priscila Claudino de. Neofobia Alimentar em crianças brasileiras no contexto da neurodiversidade. 2025. 130 f., il. Tese (Doutorado em Nutrição Humana) — Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, 2025.
Abstract:	Introduction: Food neophobia (FN) is the reluctance to eat new foods. It peaks in childhood, around two to six years of age, and tends to decrease, stabilizing in adulthood. Parental influence on eating habits, children’s innate preference for sweet and salty flavors, parental pressure for the child to eat, lack of affection, encouragement and encouragement from caregivers at mealtimes, childhood anxiety, lack of exposure to new foods, preference for high-energy-density foods, the child’s lack of autonomy when eating, and negative reactions to new stimuli are factors that influence and can generate food neophobia. Children with FN demonstrate a less varied diet. There are several studies on FN worldwide, but very few appropriate and validated instruments for each type of audience that is intended to be evaluated. The Brazilian Children’s Food Neophobia Questionnaire (BCFNeo) was developed to assess FN in Brazilian children between four and 11 years of age. It is the only instrument in Brazil validated for this audience. Caregivers respond according to their perception of their children's diet. The BCFNeo has 25 items in total, divided into 3 domains: general neophobia (FNgen) with 9 items, fruit neophobia (FNfru) with 8 items, and vegetable neophobia (FNveg) with 8 items. Each question has five answer options, on a Likert scale. In Brazil, there is no national data on the scenario of FN in children, whether these children present FN for fruits and vegetables, as is observed in other countries. Aim: To classify food neophobia in Brazilian children in the context of neurodiversity. Methodology: This is a methodological study of instrument validation, subdivided into the following steps: (I) Perform external validation of the instrument The Brazilian Children's Food Neophobia Questionnaire; (II) Definition of the instrument score and construction of a score to classify food neophobia; (III) Evaluation and characterization of the national prevalence of food neophobia among Brazilian children; and (IV) Comparison of food neophobia among neurodiverse, neurotypical, and neuroatypical Brazilian children. The sample of this study included caregivers of Brazilian children aged four to 11 years, who agreed to participate in the research and were familiar with the child's eating behavior. Snowball recruitment used the non-probabilistic convenience sampling method. The instrument was exported to a Google Forms® form, with sociodemographic questions added to characterize the sample, and widely disseminated online. The instrument's score was inverted so that more neophobic behavior corresponded to a higher score, and lower neophobia (or absence of neophobia) was the lowest score. Three categories of neophobia were created: I) low, II) medium/moderate, and III) high. The convenience sample was designed to be representative of the children's gender, region, and age. The internal consistency and domains of the instrument were verified using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Neophobia scores were described as mean and standard deviation for quantitative variables and as frequencies and percentages for categorical variables. These scores were compared between regions of Brazil using one-way analysis of variance followed by Tukey's post hoc test. Comparison of neophobia scores according to sex and age was performed using Student's t-test. Pearson's chi-square test was used to compare neophobia levels between regions, sex, and age. Student's t-test was used to verify the mean for each age, and whether there was a statistically significant difference between the overall neophobia scores and the other domains according to sex. All tests considered two-tailed hypotheses and a significance level of 5%. Results: Caregivers of 1,112 children participated in the validation study of the instrument, a representative sample of children aged 4 to 11 years in Brazil, covering all regions of the country. The Likert scale of the instrument was scored from zero to four in all questions. The complete instrument can score from 0 to 100, the FNgen domains from 0 to 36, FNfru from 0 to 32, and FNveg from 0 to 32. The complete instrument with all 25 items showed excellent internal consistency, α ≥ 0.9. The same pattern was also observed in its three domains separately. The prevalence of high FN was observed in 33.4% of Brazilian children. There was no significant difference between Brazilian regions or between age groups. Brazilian children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (n = 593) and with Down syndrome (n=231) have a prevalence of high FN of 73.9% and 41.1% respectively. Children from the Federal District (n=595) had a prevalence of high FN of 42.9%. Considering neurodiversity, the national prevalence of high FN in Brazilian children (n=2,387) is 44.2%, being divided into groups of neurotypical children with dietary restrictions (n=126), neurotypical without dietary restrictions (n=1361), neurodivergent with dietary restrictions (n=133), and neurodivergent without dietary restrictions (n=767), with the values of high FN being 29.4%, 33.4%, 62.4%, and 62.8% respectively. Conclusion: The study provided unprecedented data on the prevalence and characteristics of food neophobia in Brazilian children. This was the first study to validate the BCFNeo externally; the results indicated that the instrument can be widely used in Brazil, in any child between four and 11 years old. Food neophobia does not decrease with advancing age. There is a prevalence of high FN in neurodiverse, neurotypical and neuroatypical children. Brazilian children with autism were those who presented the highest prevalence of high FN.
metadata.dc.description.unidade:	Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde (FS)
Description:	Tese (doutorado) — Universidade de Brasília, Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Nutrição Humana, 2025.
metadata.dc.description.ppg:	Programa de Pós-Graduação em Nutrição Humana
Licença::	A concessão da licença deste item refere-se ao termo de autorização impresso assinado pelo autor com as seguintes condições: Na qualidade de titular dos direitos de autor da publicação, autorizo a Universidade de Brasília e o IBICT a disponibilizar por meio dos sites www.unb.br, www.ibict.br, www.ndltd.org sem ressarcimento dos direitos autorais, de acordo com a Lei nº 9610/98, o texto integral da obra supracitada, conforme permissões assinaladas, para fins de leitura, impressão e/ou download, a título de divulgação da produção científica brasileira, a partir desta data.
Agência financiadora:	Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES).
Appears in Collections:	Teses, dissertações e produtos pós-doutorado

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