Excesso de peso em uma amostra de escolares de uma cidade do sul do Brasil

Objective: To assess the prevalence and associated factors, both of the child and the caregiver, with excess weight among schoolchildren in a city of south of Brazil. Materials and Methods: It is a cross-sectional study, with representative sample of schoolchildren. Twenty public schools were selected by systematic random sampling. We included schoolchildren who were seven and eight years old or who completed during the year of data collection, and their caregivers (responsible for the child). A sociodemographic data collection questionnaire was applied. Anthropometric data were collected for the calculation of body mass index, and nutritional status categorized according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Hypothesis tests were conducted by chi-square and adjusted by Poisson regression. Results: 596 children and their caregivers participated in the study. The prevalence of overweight was 20.4% and childhood obesity was 24.0%. Belonging to high-income families (p=0.031) and having overweight caregivers (p=0.004) or obesity (p=0.017) was associated with a higher prevalence of childhood overweight. Being female (p=0.002), belonging to middle income families (p=0.014) or high income (p=0.002) and having a caregiver with overweight (p<0.001) or obesity (p<0.001) was associated with a high prevalence of childhood obesity. Conclusion: We can conclude from these findings that almost half of the children evaluated were overweight or obese. Both overweight and obesity in childhood were associated with a higher economic status and nutritional status of the caregiver.