Overweight in Goiás' quilombola students and food insecurity in their families

Abstract

Objective To characterize the nutritional status of quilombola students and determine the food security status of their households. Methods This is a cross-sectional study with students aged six to nineteen years from quilombola communities in twelve municipalities of Goiás categorized by age, gender, school location (urban/rural), and nutritional status based on the World Health Organization's height-for-age and body mass index for-age charts. The Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale was used for measuring food (in)security in their families. Descriptive and association analyses were conducted using the Chi-square test at a significance level of 5% (p<0.05). Results In a sample of 226 students, overweight (17.2%) was more common than malnutrition (1.3%), especially in students attending urban schools (28.2%) (p<0.05). Most (75.2%) quilombola families experienced food insecurity, especially mild. Conclusion The apparent contradiction of excess weight and food insecurity occurring simultaneously indicates the need of revising the study instruments and the causal network that identify poverty.