Estado nutricional e anemia em crianças de creches públicas da regional centro-sul de Belo Horizonte

Abstract

Introduction: According to World Health Organization (WHO), malnutrition and iron deficiency anemia are among the four principal risk factors for child development in the world. While watching the gradual reduction of the malnutrition cases, increasing prevalence of overweight have been observed in this population, characterizing the epidemiological phenomenon of nutritional transition, contributing factor to the increase in chronic disease. Especially in developing countries, it is essential to know the nutritional status of children in its qualitative and quantitative aspects in order to enable the establishment of appropriate diagnoses and interventions and the conduction of public policies to combat nutritional deficiency. Purposes: To identify the prevalence of anemia, malnutrition and overweight in preschool aged six to 72 months enrolled in 18 public nurseries from Belo Horizonte, as well as socio-economic and biological factors associated. Methodology: It is a cross-sectional and descriptive study held in 18 nurseries of South Central Regional of Belo Horizonte (MG). 373 children were selected through stratified sample, for determination of serum Hemoglobin (Hb), by means of lancing and reading in -hemoglobinometer, and status nutritional by measurement of weight and height for making indexes Weight/Age (W/A), Height/Age (H/A) and BMI/Age (BMI/A), as recommended by WHO. The cut off points used for anemia were recommended by WHO; Hb<11,0 g/dL for children aged between six and 60 months and Hb <11,5 g/dL for those who aged above. Questionnaires were administered to parents in order to collect socio economics, neonatal, breastfeeding and previous child health data. Statistical analysis was performed using Epi Info 3.5.3. A confidence interval of 95% and a significance level of 5% were considered. Results: 171 (45,5%) of the 373 children are male with a mean age of 38,1 ±16,2 months, being that 47,2% were aged between 24 and 48 months, 36,7% are children of mothers who have not completed elementary school and 59,6% were from families that earns less than two minimum wages. In relation to the nutritional status, 72,4% of the children were eutrophic, 18,5% were overweight, 8% with overweight/obesity and 1,1% slimness by BMI/age index. Capillary hemoglobin values ranged from 6,3 to 15,3 g/dL, with an average of 11,3 g/dL. Anemia was found in 133 children with a prevalence of 38,3%. In 86% of them, the anemia was classified as mild, in 13,3% as moderate and severe in 0,7%. 54,9 of the anemics were aged 24 months or less. Conclusion: The study showed that anemia in nurseries of South Central Regional of Belo Horizonte is a moderate problem of public health according to criteria proposed by WHO and affects mainly children under 24 months. It was also observed high incidence of overweight, reflecting the phenomenon of nutrition transition in this population. Concluding Remarks: Investments are needed in children´s health, in order to prevent the appearance of complications deriving from anemia and overweight/obesity in adulthood. Activities of surveillance shown to be an important mechanism of measurement and control, and it are essential for the northings of effective actions of protection, promotion and prevention of diseases linked to nutritional status.