Food insecurity and nutritional status of children of São João do Tigre, semi-arid area of Northeast Brazil

Revista Brasileira de Epidemiologia

Batista Filho, Malaquias²  Andrade, Sonia Lucia Lucena Sousa de²  Maia, Sandra Regina³  Sales, Aline Cabral¹  Oliveira, Juliana Souza²  Lira, Pedro Israel Cabral de² 

[1] Universidade Federal de Pernambuco;Universidade Federal de Alagoas

关键词: Food insecurity;    Poverty;    Nutritional status;    Children;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S1415-790X2009000300010

学科分类：过敏症与临床免疫学

来源: SciELO

【 摘 要 】

OBJECTIVE:To analyze the nutritional status of children under five years of age and toverify its relation with food insecurity profile.
METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study of 458 families with 558 childrenin the city of São João do Tigre, semi-arid area of thestate of Paraíba, Brazil. Food insecurity was determined basedon the Brazilian Food Insecurity Scale. Nutritional status was assessed throughheight-for-age, weight-for-age and Body Mass Index (BMI), using the World HealthOrganization curves as a reference. The associations of socioeconomic and biologicalvariables with height-for-age were also examined.
RESULTS: Food security was found in only 13% of families, and a moderateinsecurity condition was more prevalent (40.2%). There was a lower frequencyof malnutrition for BMI than normally expected (1.2% and 1.3% respectively forthe rural and urban areas) with a high prevalence when considering height-for-ageindices (16.8% and 12.9%, respectively). The linear regression analysis showedthat only two variables (per capita family income and maternal years of schooling)had a significant influence on child height-for-age.
CONCLUSION: In a population with a high poverty degree, low Human DevelopmentIndex and high prevalence of food insecurity, the exclusive use of anthropometricindicators may show a more favorable nutritional status. Therefore, the resultscannot be interpreted only in the field of internal validity, but as part ofa process of fast changes that characterize the nutritional transition in course,also reaching populations in unfavorable life conditions.

【 授权许可】

CC BY