Marcelo Militão Abrantes

Prevalência de sobrepeso e obesidade em crianças e adolescentes das regiões Sudeste e Nordeste

Objective: to study the prevalence of obesity and overweight among children and adolescents from Northeast and Southeast regions of Brazil. Methods: data was collected form Life Pattern Research conducted by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) in 1997. A sample of 3,317 children and 3,943 adolescents was studied according age groups. Overweight (adolescents) and obesity (adolescents and children) were defined according to World Health Organization recommendations. Z-test was used to compare prevalence among age groups, sex and geographic region. The cut-off point for statistical significance was 0.05. Results: overweight prevalence in adolescents was 1.7% in Northeast and 4.2% in Southeast. Obesity prevalence in adolescents was 6.6% and 8.4% in children and 8.2% and 11.9% in Northeast and Southeast, respectively. Considering both regions prevalence of obese female children was 10.3%, the rate of obese adolescents was 9.3% and overweight adolescents represented 3.0%. Among males prevalence was 9.2%, 7.3% and 2.6%, respectively. Conclusions: obesity prevalence is lower in Northeast than Southeast among children with age from 2 to 17 years old. Overweight prevalence among adolescents was also lower in Northeast than in Southeast. The prevalence of obesity among younger than 2 and older than 18 years old was the same. Obesity prevalence is higher among breast-fed females. Among other age groups prevalence of obesity and overweight was the same for males and females. It is difficult to compare these results with other studies, since there are few populational studies and the criteria used to define overweight and obesity in children and adolescents varies in each study.

Prevalência de sobrepeso e obesidade nas regiões Nordeste e Sudeste do Brasil

OBJECTIVE: to evaluate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children, adolescents, adults and elderlies from Northeast and Southeast regions of Brazil. METHODS: anthropometric evaluation of 17.184 people, studied in Life Pattern Research conducted by Brazilian Institute of Geographic and Statistics in 1996/97, by body mass index. Overweight and obesity definitions according to body mass index values proposed by Cole et al. which are related to adult definition. RESULTS: It was studied a little more females in this study (53.1%). Average age was 29 years and five months (± 20 years), median was 25 years and six months. Overweight prevalence was 10.8% in children, 9.9% in adolescents and 28.3% among adults and obesity was 7.3%, 1.8% and 9.7% respectively. It was noticed a gradual increase in overweight or obesity prevalence since infancy through adult age with decrease among the elderly. CONCLUSION: Prevalence of overweight and obesity joined is higher among females. More than half of the women among 50 and 69 years old, from Northeast and Southeast regions of Brazil have overweight or obesity. There are few studies of overweight and obesity among children and adolescents and a lot of definition for obesity in children which makes more difficult the comparison of studies of prevalence among children.

Recommendations for the use of body mass index for the classification of overweight and obese children and adolescents.

Brazilian national data were used to compare body mass index (BMI) cutoff values proposed by Cole et al. (2000), which are based on statistical criteria of continuity to adult cutoff values, and those proposed by Must et al. (1991), which are recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the cutoff points proposed by each author, 5,736 children and adolescents were classified as of normal weight, overweight, or obese. These classifications were compared by 3 × 3 tables, and a kappa index and a confidence interval were calculated. The good concordance (kappa = 0.82) between the two cutoff values supports the hypothesis that studies on the prevalence of childhood obesity and overweight based on these two different methods can be compared. However, some differences in classification can arise when these methods are used to classify individuals. Further studies to evaluate morbidity and mortality and the classification of obesity in children and adolescents are necessary.

A descriptive study of burn injuries in children and adolescents

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the frequency of different kinds of burns, associated factors, major complications and their relations to other variables. METHODS: Descriptive study performed at Hospital João XXIII from January to December of 1992 with five hundred and thirtyseven children and adolescents. RESULTS: The age distribution was as follows: 408 patients were children (76%) and 129 were teenagers (24%). Most of the accidents, 398 cases (74%) happened at home, 235 of which (59%) in the kitchen. 80 patients were interned. They had the highest relative frequency of accidents outside home (p<0.05). Of these interned patients, 7 (9.0%) developed septicemia. The flame was the predominant agent within the group of inpatients (p<0.01) and was responsible for the highest extension of burning (p<0.05). Teenagers had the largest body burned surface compared to children (p<0.01). Local treatment with pomade or home made medicine was observed in 290 cases (54%); local wash with water only in 32 (6.0%). Dehydration was the most frequent complication and occurred in 28 (5,0%) patients. The average amount of internment was 30-/+33 days. CONCLUSIONS: Most of burning were consequence of domestic accidents, especially in youngers than 7 years old; hot liquids are the most frequent agents and kitchen the most frequent place. Flame, which determined the largest and deepest lesions, was the first cause of burns in teenagers and the second in children. Dehydration is the most frequent complication in the earlier phases and septicemia in the others.