Estado nutricional de crianças assistidas em creches

Abstract

Objectives: to analyze the nutritional status of the Brazilian pre-school population assisted in day care centers and its associated factors; examine associated factors to overweight, stunting and underweight in children attending day care centers from João Pessoa and describe the situation of food (in)security of their families. Methodology: literature search was performed in MEDLINE, LILACS and SciELO articles reviewing the nutritional status of children attending day care centers in Brazil, published from 1990 to 2009. Search strategy: (nutritional status OR anthropometry OR malnutrition OR overweight) AND day care centers, and its counterpart in Portuguese. In the MEDLINE search the termBrazil was also used. In cross-sectional study the nutritional status of infants, the food security situation within the family, socioeconomic conditions, the characteristics of the mother and the child attending day care centers in Joao Pessoa were evaluated. Results: children attending day care centers in Brazil showed prevalence of chronic malnutrition ranged from 0.5 to 55%. Overweight has fluctuated between 0.7 and 8.6%. The most citedfactors related to malnutrition in the reviews were child's age, number of siblings, per capitafamily income and frequency of day care attendance. Among children attending day care centers in Joao Pessoa, chronic malnutrition was present in 7.6% and overweight in 6.4%. Factors associated with malnutrition in this sample were short maternal stature and incomplete vaccination scheme. The overweight in children was associated with maternal overweight. Furthermore, 59.6% of the families had food and nutritionalinsecurity, prevailing its milder form (32.4%). Conclusion: overweight and stunting, both in children attending day care centers inJoão Pessoa, as in many Brazilian cities, were the most common nutritional disorders, constituting priorities for public policy today.