Prevalência de sobrepeso e obesidade em escolares de alto nível socioeconômico em Londrina, Paraná, Brasil

• Autor(a) principal: Ronque, Enio Ricardo Vaz [UNESP]
• Data de Publicação: 2005
• Outros Autores: Cyrino, Edilson Serpeloni, Dórea, Valfredo Ribeiro, Serassuelor Jr., Helio, Galdi, Enori Helena Gemente, De Arruda, Miguel
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Institucional da UNESP
• Texto Completo: http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S1415-52732005000600001; http://hdl.handle.net/11449/68476
• topic: Child; Food habits; Obesity; Prevalence; anthropometry; body build; body mass; Brazil; child parent relation; controlled study; education; feeding behavior; female; groups by age; human; major clinical study; male; metabolic disorder; obesity; questionnaire; school child; sex ratio; skinfold thickness; socioeconomics; statistical significance; triceps brachii muscle

Objective: To verify the prevalence of overweight and obesity in 7 to 10 year old schoolchildren of both sexes and high socioeconomic level. Methods: Five hundred and eleven schoolchildren (274 boys and 237 girls) were submitted to anthropometrical measurements of body mass, stature and subscapular and triceps skin-fold thickness. Body mass indexes ≥85th percentile and <95th percentile were used to determine overweight, whereas body mass indexes ≥95th percentile were adopted as indicators of obesity. The socioeconomic level was established based on information obtained from a questionnaire, considering the degree of education of the parents and the familiar consumables. Results: The total prevalence for overweight was 19.7% for the boys and 17.3% for the girls, with no significant differences amongst ages and sexes (p>0.05). On the other hand, the prevalence for obesity in the boys and girls was 17.5% and 9.3%, respectively, with significant differences between the sexes at 9 years (p<0.01) and 10 years (p<0.05) of age, as well as amongst the entire group of ages (p<0.01). Conclusion: The results indicated a high prevalence ratio for overweight (∼19%) and obesity (∼14%), much greater than the average for the 7-10 year old Brazilian population. Therefore, different from that observed in developed countries, a high socioeconomic level seems to negatively affect the prevalence for overweight and obesity, increasing the risk of the precocious development of metabolic dysfunctions.