Prevalence of underweight, overweight, and obesity among 2, 162 Brazilian school adolescents

Abstract

Introduction: The nutritional profile of the Brazilian population has changed in recent years. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the prevalence of nutritional status among Brazilian school adolescents during the period from January 2014 to December 2014.Methods: This study employed an observational design with a cohort of school adolescents. Anthropometric measurement was assessed by nutritionists in government schools. The cut-off points for body mass index according to Brazilian criteria for adolescents of both sexes between 10 years and 19 years old were underweight (≤17.5 kg/m2), overweigh (≥25.0 kg/m2), and obesity (≥30.0 kg/m2). Results: The number of students included in the analysis was 2162, of which 71.0% were males and 29% were females (P = 0.00001). The mean age (years) was 13.14 ± 2.17 for boys and 12.66 ± 1.85 for girls (P = 0.0001). The prevalence of underweight, overweight, and obesity observed in our population of school adolescents according to the Brazilian criteria was 2.8%, 8.1%, and 2.4% for males, respectively, and 23.0%, 10.7%, and 3.6% for females, respectively. For both sexes, there was no statistically significant difference between overweight (P = 0.5469) and obesity (P = 0.7863), but there was for underweight (P = 0.001). Conclusions: The occurrence of excess weight among Brazilian school adolescents is similar to the international prevalence, but the prevalence of underweight was very high among girls. The nutritional status of adolescents must be considered a public health problem in Brazil.

Keywords

• Adolescent
• nutrition
• nutritional status
• obesity