Food insecurity is common in the most vulnerable population, even though they benefit from
social programs and this has a negative impact on people's health. The present work is a
cross-sectional and descriptive research that aims to identify the sociodemographic profile,
food consumption and nutritional status of women beneficiaries of income transfer programs,
in a situation of food insecurity, in the municipality of Belém-PA. The inclusion criteria for
the sample population of this research were women beneficiaries of income transfer programs
registered in the Single Registry in a state of food insecurity aged 18 years or more, who
agreed to participate in this research after signing the Free and Informed Consent Form. Data
collection was carried out in the 12 Social Assistance Reference Centers of Belém between
May and July 2022 by nutritionists and undergraduates, using a form of questions about the
sociodemographic profile and food consumption and anthropometric measurements to
classify the nutritional status. Most beneficiaries were severely food insecurity (47,25%), are
black (86%), heads of households (81,25%) with 1 or more children (91,25%), unemployed
(51,5%) with income less than 1 minimum wage (72,25%), also showed a high frequency of
consumption of ultra-processed foods (91,5%), low percentage of regular consumption of
beans (65%) and low frequency of recommended consumption of fruits and vegetables
(7,3%). In addition, most women were overweight (67%). It is noted that despite the income
transfer, women continue without the guarantee of food security, without nutritional quality in
their food, with low family income and in a nutritional status of overweight. Therefore, it is
indispensable to strengthen intersectoral public policies to promote the guarantee of human
right to adequate food.
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