Avaliação do estado nutricional e composição corporal de pessoas com deficiência visual

Abstract

Introduction: The nutritional status evaluation is important to support feeding and nutrition actions and to determine pathologies risks related to body composition, particularly in people with visual impairment, who are predisposed to chronic noncommunicable diseases(CNCD) development due to poor diet. In this context, the present study investigated the nutritional status and body composition of people with visual impairment. Methodology: This is a cross-sectional, observational study developed with 98 people, between 17 and 71 years of age, both sexes, with different visual impairment degrees. Through interviews, the participants' socioeconomic, demographic, health and lifestyle aspects were investigated. Anthropometric measurements (weight, height, waist and neck circumferences, triceps, bicipital, subscapular and suprailiac skinfolds) were also collected in order to evaluate body composition, nutritional status and risk for CNCD. Statistical analyzes were performed using the statistical package SPSS version 20.0, using the Chi-Square test. Results: Among those evaluated, 58.8% were overweight (44.3% were overweight and 14.4% were obese) and 80.5% had excess body fat. It was also found that 44.9% had a risk for metabolic complications associated with central obesity due to the high waist circumference, 36.7% had a risk for insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome due to the increased neck perimeter. The visual deficiency degree and disability time were not associated with nutritional status and body composition. Conclusion: In this study, people with visual impairment had a high prevalence of overweight and obesity, excess body fat, as well as a risk for CNCD, emphasizing that both preventive and nutritional intervention actions are necessary to control health problems related to nutrition in this group.