Nutritional status and factors associated with the prevalence of obesity among schoolchildren from public and private elementary schools in Maceio, Alagoas

Abstract

The objective was to classify the nutritional status and investigate the factors associated with the prevalence of obesity among students from public and private elementary schools in Maceio. This is a cross-sectional study with a probability sample of 1510 students (9.8 ± 0.5 years) from public (n=931) and private (n=579) schools. Socioeconomic, demographic, anthropometric and dietary data were obtained. Nutritional status was defined by anthropometry according to WHO criteria. Obesity was defined as BMI-for-age >2 z. The measure of association was the prevalence ratio (PR) and respective 95% CI, calculated by Poisson regression. Only 1.2% of those investigated had stunting. The prevalence of obesity was higher among students from the private network (22.1% vs. 10.3%; PR=2.14; 95%CI=1.66; 2.76). In the crude analysis, obesity was associated with lower number of residents at home, buying snacks at school canteens, not being a user of government assistance programs, greater consumption of unhealthy foods and attending a private school. In the adjusted analysis, only this last variable remained associated (p<0.05), possibly due to the fact that most of the other predictors occurred more frequently in the context of private establishments. Obesity is the main nutritional disorder found among elementary school students in Maceio, a condition that is independently associated with attending a private school.