Hábitos alimentarios y situación nutricional de hijos de emigrantes, de los Centros Educativos “Alfonso M. Ortiz” y “12 de Octubre”, El Tambo. 2018

Abstract

Background: food habits are acquired in the early stages of development, this is where transient or definitive preferences and aversions are defined, constituting the basis of eating behavior for the rest of life. In these stages the environmental, family, cultural and social conditions have an important influence for the definition of the alimentary personality, on which the nutritional status will depend. Aim: determine the alimentary habits and the nutritional situation of the children of emigrants of the educational centers "Alfonso M. Ortiz" and "12 de Octubre" of the canton El Tambo. Methodology: is a quantitative, descriptive, cross-sectional study, we worked with a population universe of 212 schoolchildren of emigrants, between 5 and 12 years old, enrolled in the school year 2018. To assess the nutritional level, a questionnaire was used, and the Test Krece-Plus validated by Serra et al., Anthropometric measures were taken. The results were analyzed by means of the statistical program SPSS 22 and are exposed in tables and graphs. Results: 25.47% of schoolchildren do not take a dairy at breakfast, 31.6% do not include cereals in their breakfast. 45.28% do not eat a second fruit daily and 40.57% do not eat vegetables more than once a day. 14.6% of children, according to the KrecePlus test, have a very low nutritional level. 21.2% present malnutrition (4.7% underweight, 10.8% overweight and 5.7% obesity). There was no statistically significant association between the abnormal values in the KrecePlus test to have alterations in the nutritional situation, p value = 0.315.