Abstract

FAJARDO BONILLA, ESPERANZA  and  ANGEL ARANGO, LUIS ALBERTO. PREVALENCE OF OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY, FOODS INTAKE AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PATTERN IN A POPULATION OF SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE CITY OF BOGOTÁ. rev.fac.med [online]. 2012, vol.20, n.1, pp.101-116. ISSN 0121-5256.

Figures of infant overweight and obesity have increased over the past years in Colombia, posing an alarming issue when taking into account the relationship between these nutritional problems and the development of chronic diseases in later stages of life. In order to design prevention strategies and control of unbalanced nutrition in infancy, this study aimed to determine the overweight and obesity prevalence and to analyze the food intake and physical activity pattern in a group of school children. Three hundred twenty six children aged between 7 and 11 years, 2nd and 5th graders from two schools of Bogotá were examined. Anthropometric measures were taken and from weight and height, the body mass index was built for nutritional classification and was related with the adiposity indicators established from the relationship between skinfold, body perimeter and bioelectric impedance. In order to evaluate the foods intake, the 24hour reminder method and the intake frequency questionnaire were used and a survey over the physical activity behaviors was conducted. The results show that 22.4% of this group is overweight and 15.3% is obese. A direct relationship between body mass index and fat percentage found with bioelectric impedance and skinfolds was observed: As the body mass index increases the percentage of body fat also increases. The energy and nutrients intake did not show statistically significant difference between students with normal nutritional status and those overweight and obese when they were related by gender. The physical activity pattern in children is characterized by sedentary activities such as watching TV or play video games. The presence of overweight and obesity is associated with measurements of waist circumference (p=0.022) and fat percentage determined by bioelectric impedance method (p=0.001). In the studied group, a high prevalence of overweight and obesity was observed as well as abdominal distribution of body fat mostly in males which is associated with poor vigorous physical activity.

Keywords : Infant obesity; physical activity; feeding.

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