Evaluación del estado nutricional en adolescentes de 15 a 18 años que asisten al Colegio Miguel Merchán del Cantón Cuenca en el año 2010

Abstract

Background: The lifestyle changes, physical activity food trends and level results comes from the influence of sociocultural have been determinants of variations in the nutritional status of individuals worldwide. Objective: To evaluate nutritional status, physical activity levels and patterns of food intake in adolescents aged 15 to 18 years in schools in the canton Cuenca. Procedure and Methods: We performed a transversal and descriptive, randomly recruited 200 students of the Miguel Merchán High School. The inclusion criteria were adolescents aged between 15 to 18 years; were excluded adolescents with serious illness, pregnancy, or on a diet. The study included: anthropometric measurements, assessment of physical activity and dietary intake patterns through surveys of adolescents. Results: The study included 200 cases, of which 103 (51.5%) were men and 97 (48.5%) were women, the average age is 16.43 years. With regard to nutritional status, 43.5% had a normal nutritional status, 56.5% have some degree of risk, overweight or obese. In regard to physical activity makes a 72.5% low activity. Depending on the type of diet we found that 35.5% use a hyper-caloric diet unrelated to the age group. There are significant relationships between sex, high and weight. Conclusions: The investigation reveals that there is no statistically significant relationship between physical activity, diet and age with nutritional state.