Efficacy of a strategy of school children's feeding and physical activity behaviors related to overweight and obesity in Mexico

Objective To validate a strategy to prevent overweight and obesity, in Mexico State Methods We have developed a strategy:”nutrition on the go”. First we made a diagnostic of the nutrition state in 1800 children of 60 schools; after that, we proposed a strategy, we have use the method of formative research, that resulted in four components: 1) Reduce the content of fats and sugar and include fruit and vegetables 2) Regulate the sale of food in school 3) Carrying out a program of physical activity 4) Design and implement a campaign focused on diet and physical activity. Then we validated such strategy; we raise awareness among the teachers before the strategy implementation in small scale (efficacy in 6 schools/four months). And we evaluated the change in the average of body mass index adjusted by age (BMI) and the change in knowledge about food adequacy and physical activity. Results In the diagnosis phase we found a prevalence of overweight and obesity of 21%. The more important findings were the average of BMI remained between the basal evaluation and the final (4 m later), 18.6 and 18.55 respectively. The average score of knowledge on food questionnaires changed from 4.01± 1.86 to 5.7± 1.92. In physical activity, increase from 3.58± 1.88 to 6.15±2.37 (p=0.009). We conclude that the strategy is efficacious to maintain the corporal weight and to increase the knowledge in food adequacy and physical activity in children