Nutritional status of children and adolescents living in an area of social vulnerability

Abstract

Introduction: The nutritional transition in Brazil is characterized by a decrease in malnutrition, an increase in obesity and the presence of maladies related to poor diet. In low-income communities, food consumption is marked by the choice of cheap, high-calorie foods with high sugar and fat content, which are consumed to meet caloric need only as a way of survival. Objective: To evaluate the nutritional status of children and adolescents living in an area of social vulnerability and attended by a social organization. Methods and Materials: It is a cross-sectional descriptive study, carried out with 122 children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years and evaluated by the anthropometric method according to the parameters: Weight / age, Height / age and BMI / age. Results and discussion: The largest part of the participants were male (61%) and with a mean age of 11.76 years. The nutritional status of the children showed that 95% were adequately weighed and 5% were overweight and 100% had adequate height for their age. In the BMI / I classification, 82% were eutrophic and 24.7% were overweight. On the other hand, 95% of the adolescents presented adequate height for age and in the verification of BMI by age, 70% were eutrophic, 25% overweight and 5% underweight. Conclusion: The studied population has a good nutritional status, most of the children and adolescents were eutrophic according to weight/age, height /age and BMI/age. However, the number of those overweight is worrisome.