Growth and nutritional status of adolescents of public education system

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of obesity in children and adults has increased worldwide exponentially over the past two decades, becoming an important issue of global public health. Objective: To describe the growth and nutritional status of adolescents of public schools. Methods: Epidemiological, cross-sectional study, a representative sample of students aged 10 to 14 years of the public schools of the Metropolitan Region of Grande Vitória (MRGV), State of Espírito Santo, Brazil. Data on gender, age, skin colour/race, pubertal stage, socioeconomic class, weight and height were obtained. In the nutritional evaluation, the Height/Age (H/A) and Body Mass Index/Age (BMI/A) indexes, in z-score, of the WHO reference (2007) were considered. For statistical analysis, we used the Qui-square test and Student's t test (Mann-Whitney test for non-normal distribution), and significance level of p < 0.05. Study approved by the Institutional Research Ethics Committee. Results: There were assessed 818 adolescents, with average age of 12.8 ± 1.1 years, female predominance (58.3%), mixed skin colour/race (41.7%), post-pubertal stage (53, 4%) and socioeconomic class C (59.5%). It was identified very low stature in 0.4% and low stature in 1.8% of adolescents. Overweight was diagnosed in 227 (27.7%) students, represented by overweight (18.7%), obesity (8.4%) and severe obesity (0.6%); While 0.2% presented severe thinness and 2.7% thinness. The mean z-score of girls' height (p = 0.024) was higher than the WHO reference, as well as the BMI z-score of girls (p = 0.0001) and boys (p = 0.0002). Conclusion: Adolescents of public schools of MRGV achieve adequate growth, even higher, on average, proposed by WHO (2007). However, they also present a high prevalence of overweight, indicating that the region is at an advanced stage of nutritional transition.