Prevalence of overweight and obesity in schoolchildren aged 7 to 10 years and their associated determinants.

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of the present study was to investigate the determinants associated with the nutritional status of students, aged 7 to 10 years, from the state public schools of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul.

Materials and methods: This is a cross-sectional study with 574 school children. The nutritional state was determined from the Body Mass Index (BMI), according to the World Health Organization (WHO) z-score, 2007. A descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis of Poisson regression was performed to independently evaluate factors associated with being overweight.

Results: The prevalence of overweight was 37.1% for both sexes. In the Poisson regression analysis, it was possible to identify that waist circumference, low physical activity score, do not eat breakfast, perform a greater number of meals a day and have a percentage of meals with unhealthy foods, over 50% of the total meals of the day, are predictors (p <0.05) for the risk of overweight and obesity.

Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight and obesity in the population studied is high, and this evidence reinforces the importance of greater attention to public health care policies.