Excesso de peso corporal e indicadores sociais, nutricionais e de saúde em escolas municipais
Abstract
Introduction: Overweight in childhood is positively associated with overweight in
adulthood. In the medium and long term, being overweight may be a risk factor for
hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Objective: Verifying the
prevalence of overweight and obesity and related factors (food consumption, physical
activity, family income, birth weight and breastfeeding) in children from 7 to 10 years
old, students in the public elementary schools in the city of São Carlos, state of Sao
Paulo, Brazil, in the year of 2017. Methods: Exploratory survey conducted between
september and november of 2017, with 306 children (154 boys: 152 girls), enrolled
between the 2nd and 5th year of elementary school in 7 public elementary schools.
The nutritional diagnostic of overweight (≥ z-score +1) and obesity (≥ z-score +2) was
based on the World Health Organization’s Body Mass Index curves for age and gender.
The variables family income, birth weight and breastfeeding duration were obtained in
questionnaires completed by parents. And the information about food consumption and
physical activity were completed by students, in the school, on the day of the
anthropometry. Statistical analysis has been done through Epi Info 7.2.2.1, R e Sas
OnDemand softwares. Values of p < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.The
association between excess weight (overweight and obesity) and other variables was
investigated using Chi-Square, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney and Pearson’s correlation
tests. Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 22% and 24%,
respectively. Overweight including obesity were found in 46% of the children. Among
the variables investigated, the overweight was statistically associated with the waist
circumference (p < 0.001), sedentary activities (such watching television or playing
electronic games or using computer) (p 0.0228) and birth weight (p 0.0333). We
observed that students who did not consume beans 5 times or more in the week were
approximately 1.83 times more likely to have overweight. Regarding the school feeding
menu, there was a predominance in the morning snack/ afternoon snack of
ultraprocessed foods (70.6%) and in the main meal, in natura or minimally processed
foods (57.1%). Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight found in schoolchildren was
higher than the national average, which it worries and increase the need for corrective
and preventive interventions in this age group. Based on the findings, believed that
educational actions on healthy eating allied the physical activity and control of the time
of use of electronic devices should be held at school. Finally, industrialized foods
should be offered in school meals in a complementary way, prioritizing in natura or
minimally processed foods, since these foods contribute positively to the growth and
development of children.