Height of adolescents enrolled in public schools in Paraná state, Brazil
Keywords:
Adolescents, Nutrition assessment, Anthropometry, Body height, GrowthAbstract
Objective
The objective of this study is to assess the growth of adolescents enrolled in the public school system of the State of Paraná and compare the data with that of the National Health and Nutrition Survey South Region and to identify the occurrence of stunting by comparison to reference values.
Methods
A total of 13,216 students were selected by convenience sampling. The sample consisted of 6,323 boys and 6,893 girls, aged 10 to 18 years. The height-for-age distribution was analyzed using normal plots and the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. A growth curve was constructed for the students in Paraná in order to compare it with the values from the National Health and Nutrition Survey South Region and Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2000.
Results
The height-for-age index of the students followed a normal distribution for all ages and both genders. The prevalence of stunting is very close to that expected for a normal population. The height median is higher than that of the National Health and Nutrition Survey South Region, for all ages and both genders. A stunting of 0.05 to 2.39cm was found among the 12- to 18-year-olds.
Conclusion
The positive differences between the studied population and the data from the National Health and Nutrition Survey South Region, along with the small deficits when compared with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reference values suggest that improvements in the social and economic conditions of Paraná may have contributed to these results. Regional differences must be considered for better planning of public policies.
References
Varela-Silva MI, Bogin B. Growth as a measure of socioeconomic inequalities and poor living conditions among Portuguese, Cape Verdean-Portuguese, and Cape Verdean children, between 1993 and 2001. Proceedings of the 1st Lusophone Africa Conference: Intersections Between the Social Sciences, 2003, Cornel University - NY. [cited 2006 Jun]. Available from: <http://www.kyle.aem.cornell.edu/lusopaps/VarelaSilva_&_Bogin.pdf>.
Ulijaszek SJ. Between-population variation in pre-adolescent growth. In: Waterlow JC, Schürch B. Causes and mechanisms of linear growth retardation. London; 1993.
Freedman DS, Khan LK, Serdula MK, Srinivasan SR, Berenson GS. Secular trends in height among children during 2 decades: the Bogalusa Heart Study. Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2000; 154(Pt 2): 155-61.
Monteiro CA, Benicio MHD’A, Iunes R, Gouveia NC, Taddei JAAC, Cardoso MAA. ENDEF e PNSN: para onde caminha o crescimento físico da criança brasileira? Cad Saúde Pública. 1993; 9(Suppl1): 85-95.
Monteiro CA, Benício MHD, Gouveia NC. Evolução da altura dos brasileiros. In: Monteiro CA. Velhos e novos males da saúde no Brasil: a evolução do país e de suas doenças. 2a. ed. São Paulo: Hucitec; 2000. p.126-40.
Brasil. Ministério da Saúde. Instituto de Alimentação e Nutrição. Pesquisa Nacional sobre Saúde e Nutrição. Perfil de crescimento da população brasileira de 0 a 25 anos. Brasília; 1990.
National Center for Health Statistics. 2000 CDC growth charts for the United States: methods and development. Washington; 2000. p.201. Series Report 11, 246.
Dean AG, Dean JA, Burton AH, Dicker RC. Epi Info, version 6bc: a word processing, database, and statistics program for epidemiology on microcomputers. Georgia: Center for Disease Control and Prevention; 1997.
Morcillo AM. Teste de Kolmogorov-Smirnov. Campinas: Unicamp. [acesso 2006 nov 15]. Disponível em: <http://www.fcm.unicamp.br/centros/ciped/mp639/Teste%20de%20Kolmogorov.pdf>.
Paraná. Secretaria de Estado do Planejamento e Coordenação Geral. Instituto Paranaense de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social. Coeficientes de mortalidade infantil, materna e geral Paraná. [acesso 2006 nov 05]. Disponível em: <http://www.ipardes.gov.br/pdf/indices/coeficiente_mortalidade.pdf>.
Paraná. Secretaria de Estado do Planejamento e Coordenação Geral. Instituto Paranaense de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social. Índice de desenvolvimento humano municipal (IDH-M) - Paraná. [acesso 2006 nov 15]. Disponível em:<http://www.ipardes.gov.br/>.
Instituto de Estudos do Trabalho e Sociedade. Dados e tabulações da série histórica da Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios, 1992-2004. [acesso 2006 nov 5]. Disponível em: <http://www.iets.org.br/>.
Instituto Paranaense de Desenvolvimento Econômico e Social. Paraná: diagnóstico social e econômico. Curitiba; 2003.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Suely Teresinha Schmidt Passos de AMORIM, Alline Gouvea Martins RODRIGUES, Márcia Cristina STOLARSKI
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
