Nutritional status of pre-school children from low income families

• Grant number: 11/08644-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants - Publications - Scientific article
• Start date: July 01, 2011
• End date: December 31, 2011
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Maternal and Child Health
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Carlos de Abreu
• Grantee: Luiz Carlos de Abreu
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina do ABC (FMABC). Organização Social de Saúde. Fundação do ABC. Santo André , SP, Brazil

Abstract

BACKGROUND: We evaluated growth and nutritional status of preschool children between 2 and 6 years old from low income families from 14 daycare centers. METHODS: Cross-sectional study with 1544 children from daycare centers of Santo Andre, Brazil. Body weight (W), height (H) and body mass index (BMI) were classified according to the 2000 National Center for Health Statistics (CDC/NCHS). Cutoff points for nutritional disorders: -2 z scores and 2.5 and 10 percentiles for malnutrition risk, 85 to 95 percentile for overweight and above BMI 95 percentile for obesity. Stepwise Forward Regression method was used including age, gender, birth weight, breastfeeding duration, age of mother at birth and period of time they attended the daycare center. RESULTS: Children presented mean z scores of H, W and BMI above the median of the CDC/NCHS reference. Girls were taller and heavier than boys, while we observed similar BMI between both genders. The z scores tended to rise with age. A Pearson Coefficient of Correlation of 0.89 for W, 0.93 for H and 0.95 for BMI was documented indicating positive association of age with weight, height and BMI. The frequency of children below -2 z scores was lower than expected: 1.5% for W, 1.75% for H and 0% for BMI, which suggests that there were no malnourished children. The other extremity of the distribution evidenced prevalence of overweight and obesity of 16.8% and 10.8%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Low income preschool children are in an advanced stage of nutritional transition with a high prevalence of overweight. (AU)