Monitoring of preschoolers nutritional status

Abstract

The increase in the incidence of overweight and obesity in preschool children, associated with the lack of monitoring of the growth and nutritional status of these children, has attracted the attention of science and governments. Thus the objective of this study was to verify the growth trend of children attending in preschool of a city in the interior of the State of São Paulo. Three anthropometric evaluations were performed during two years of monitoring in 75 preschool children. The data collected were: weight, height, body mass index, tricipital perimeter, skinfold thickness tricipital and subscapular. Values were compared with parameters from the World Health Organization. Most of the children were inside the expected in all measures of the three evaluations. There was no tendency to overweight, but the significant association of p <0.001 between overweight and obesity revealed a high incidence of these cases in the three evaluations, surpassing the national and international prevalence for children of this age group. It is necessary actions as monitoring nutritional and increase of the levels of physical activity these children.