Abstract

ALZATE SALAZAR, Diego Alonso; RAMOS BERMUDEZ, Santiago  and  MELO BETANCOURT, Luis Gerardo. ADIPOSE TISSUE IN 7 TO 18 YEAR OLD SCHOOLCHILDREN. Hacia promoc. Salud [online]. 2011, vol.16, n.2, pp.85-96. ISSN 0121-7577.

Objective: to characterize the adipose tissue of 7 to 18 years old schoolchildren. Material and methods: descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional study. Population: 224.200 students from public and private schools from Caldas in 2007, represented by 1,139 students (538 women, 601 men) probabilistic random sample in five municipalities. Technique: anthropometric measurement observation. Analysis: average, standard deviation, correlations between variables, hypothesis testing and significance of the differences between means were calculated using the Statgraphics 5.1 plus program. Results: average fat percentages were higher than those in the international reference population. Highly significant differences (P<0.01) in fat percentage were found between genders being higher in women. The nutritional classification from the energy reserve for men showed deficit 11%, normal 86.5% and excess 2,5%; for women it showed deficit 11.9%, normal 84.3% and excess 3.8%. Taking 85 and 95 percentiles of the sum of fat folds of triceps and subescapular for age as overweight and obesity criterion , the values varied slightly: 7.7% and 10.8% overweight for men and women respectively, and 3.3% and 1.1% obesity. In fat percentage (≥25% ≥32% men and women) obesity was found in 13.2% men and 13.6% women. These values are closer to those reported in recent international studies. Conclusions: women had more adipose tissue in all age groups and the studied population had a greater fat percentage than the international reference population.

Keywords : Body composition; anthropometry; adipose tissue; skinfold thickness; schoolchildren.

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