Title
Assessment of the nutritional status, physical activity, and eating habits of schoolchildren in Cercado de Lima
Other title
Evaluación del estado nutricional, patrones de consumo alimentario y de actividad física en escolares del cercado De Lima
Date Issued
01 October 2016
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
Instituto Nacional de Salud
Abstract
Objectives. To assess the nutritional status, physical activity, and eating habits of schoolchildren in Cercado de Lima (Lima district). Materials and methods. Cross-sectional descriptive study. The sample included schoolchildren from first to fourth grade in four public elementary schools located in Cercado de Lima. The study variables were nutritional status, hemoglobin dose, physical activity, and eating habits. The percentages of the qualitative variables and central tendency measures for quantitative ones were calculated. The t-test and chi-squared test were applied to analyze differences between both genders. Results. Of 824 schoolchildren included in the study, 24% were obese, 22% were overweight, 5% had short stature, and 11.9% had anemia; in all instances, there were no substantial gender differences. More than 40% of schoolchildren would eat crackers and drink packaged juice and/or soda two or more times a week. In addition, 28% of schoolchildren were inactive; there were significant differences in both genders (P<0.05). Conclusions. Obesity is an ongoing problem with higher rates than overweight and, together, the aforementioned problems affect almost 50% of schoolchildren surveyed. Similarly, the study revealed patterns associated with a sedentary lifestyle and frequent consumption of foods with high levels of sugar, salt, and/or fats.
Start page
633
End page
639
Volume
33
Issue
4
Language
Spanish
OCDE Knowledge area
Salud pública, Salud ambiental Nutrición, Dietética
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-85013482335
PubMed ID
Source
Revista Peruana de Medicina Experimental y Salud Publica
ISSN of the container
17264634
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus