Estado nutricional e hábitos de vida em escolares

This study aimed to describe the prevalence of obesity, overweight, eating habits and the frequency of physical activity among schoolchildren from Campina Grande, Paraiba. It included 255 children from six to ten years old, whose BMI were calculated. It was considered overweight BMI > 85 percentile 95 percentile. Overweight and obesity was observed in 23.5% of the studied population and was higher in private school students (49.1%) than those of the public (17.1%) (p <0.001), and in the boys (31,2%) than girls (16%) (p <0.01). The majority of the children (66.3%) performed less than three days of physical activity per week and was observed a higher frequency of snack brought from home to school by students of private schools (83.7%), between them: biscuit (72%), soft drink (54%) and snacks (50%). The public school students had a highest intakes of biscuits (68.2%), yoghurt (61.9%) and fruit salad (55.6%). Obesity, overweight, unhealthy eating habits and sedentarism were frequent among schoolchildren. This reinforces the need to implement public policies for the prevention of obesity, as well as an intensification of nutrition education and encouraging the physical activity in schools.