Obesidad y sedentarismo en niños de 4 años que asisten a dos jardines de infantes de la ciudad de Río Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina

The precocious start of the adipocyte rebound, such as sedentarism, increases the risk of developing obesity and its comorbidities at later ages. The city of Río Grande is located in the Northwestern part of Tierra del Fuego and its monthly average temperature is the lowest in all of Argentina. It also possesses the largest juvenile population (in proportion to the total) as well as a very low mortality rate. According to the 2006 National Health and Nutrition Survey, the prevalence of obesity among its children was also one of the highest in the country. The objective of this investigation was to determine the prevalence of obesity and sedentarism in 4-year-old children; the sample was taken from two local kindergartens. In order to achieve this, the children were weighed and measured, their body mass index and waist perimeter, as well as their percentiles, were calculated. A structured questionnaire was applied to characterize the average weekly time allotted to sedentary activities. In this study, 27.3% of children were deemed to be overweight, while 18.2% were classified as obese. Furthermore, 23.6% presented a waist circumference in the > 90 percentile or higher and 70.1% fell in the sedentary classification. Both the predominance of sedentarism and the pattern of fat distribution are a clear alert towards the need to deepen the search for metabolic-risk syndrome factors in vulnerable groups.