Hábitos alimentarios y su influencia sobre el estado nutricional en escolares de la Unidad Educativa Particular Latinoamericano y Escuela de Educación Básica Manuela Cañizares, Cuenca 2018 - 2019

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The current prevalence of diseases related to food is a subject that needs urgent intervention, thus avoiding the development of chronic non communicable diseases in the future. OBJECTIVE: To determine dietary habits and their influence on the nutritional status of children of school age from 9 to 12 years of the Latin American Individual Educational Unit and Manuela Cañizares Basic Education School, Cuenca 2018 - 2019. METHOD AND TECHNIQUES: Descriptive cross-sectional study, with a population of 90 children from 9 to 12 years old. The techniques used were; anthropometric evaluation and food survey. For the data analysis, Microsoft Excel 2013 and EPIDAT 4 version 4.2 were used. RESULTS: 48.8% of the population had a regular eating habit, 27.7% had a bad eating habit and 23.3% had good eating habits, giving similar data for both sexes. The prevalence of normal nutritional status was 48.9% and the percentage of children with overweight, obesity and thinness was 51.1%. The prevalence of nutritional status according to sex was higher in girls with overweight 33.3%, low weight and obesity is higher in children with 15.4% respectively. CONCLUSIONS: It was evidenced that the consumption of foods considered as healthy, is below the recommended, while, the consumption of foods considered as unhealthy, are above the established. It is observed that as food habits change from regular to bad the percentage of children with overweight and obesity increases