Use of the Food and Nutrition Surveillance System in epidemiological studies on the nutrition profile of the Brazilian population: a scoping review, Brazil, 2008-2025

El uso del Sistema de Vigilancia de Alimentos y Nutrición en estudios epidemiológicos sobre el perfil nutricional de la población brasileña: una revisión de alcance, Brasil, 2008-2025

Objectives:   To identify and characterize the scientific literature on the use of the Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (SISVAN) in the description and analysis of the nutrition profile of the Brazilian population who use the Brazilian Unified Health System.

Methods:  This is a scoping review. Document selection occurred independently in stages previously defined in a research protocol. The review included primary studies, reviews, and grey literature that underwent peer review and produced evidence from quantitative information on nutrition status held on SISVAN Web, for all populations and locations. Data extraction was standardized, and publications were analyzed according to a glossary developed to standardize methodological aspects.

Results:  A total of 1,294 records were identified, and 161 were analyzed after applying the eligibility criteria. There was a significant increase in publications, especially from 2021 onwards, with emphasis on ecological time-series designs, which have adopted robust methods to analyze SISVAN data. Twenty-nine studies were identified that worked with individualized data, with cross-sectional or retrospective cohort analysis. The most studied life stage was childhood, particularly up to 5 years of age. In 40 studies, the data source was stratified, and most used data from the Bolsa Família Program. Pernambuco, Minas Gerais and Bahia were the states most studied. Some studies investigated the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on SISVAN indicators or used georeferencing/spatial analysis methods.

Conclusion:  This review presented the state of the art of scientific production using nutrition information from SISVAN and characterized methodological aspects, thus informing future research.

Keywords:
Food and Nutritional Surveillance; Health Information Systems; Nutritional Status; Nutritional Epidemiology; Scoping Review