Prevalência de sobrepeso e de obesidade no primeiro ano de vida nas Estratégias Saúde da Família

Abstract

Background: Childhood overweight and obesity represent one of the main public health problems in the world, but there is a scarcity of prevalence records in Brazil during the first year of life. Objective: Verify the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the first year of life of infants enrolled in the Family Health Strategies, and to identify whether there is a difference in weight-per-age, height-per-age, weight/height-per-age and body mass index (BMI)-per-age in relation to sex, age group and socioeconomic level. Method: A cross-sectional study was performed, in which weight and height data were collected from the Child Health Handbook. Results: The prevalence of overweight and obesity was 7.2% according to the weight/height index, and 4.8% for the BMI index. Infants with an A-B socioeconomic status had higher BMI-per-age when compared to children at level C (p=0.048). Infants aged 6 to 12 months had higher weight-per-age (p=0.02) and height-per-age (p=0.01) than infants younger than six months. Conclusion:The prevalence of overweight and obesity in the first year of life depends on the index used for classification. The socioeconomic status may interfere with BMI-per-age values, and the age group may interfere with weight-per-age and height-per-age indexes.