Análise do impacto do tempo de amamentação e do peso ao nascer em relação ao excesso de peso e obesidade em escolares do município de Santa Cruz – RN

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To verify possible associations between the time of breastfeeding and birth weight with overweight and obesity in schoolchildren from the municipality of Santa Cruz - RN. METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study, with a final sample of 305 students from 8 municipal schools, from the 1st to the 5th year of elementary school. The data collection was carried out by a research group of the Faculty of Health Sciences of Trairi, collecting data of anthropometry and information obtained by a questionnaire. RESULTS: It was seen that a greater number of overweight schoolchildren were those who had exclusive breastfeeding less than six months. With regard to birth weight, it was seen that children with birth weight between ≥ 2500g and ≤ 4000g are more overweight. Overweight and obese schoolchildren have the highest frequency of AME less than six months, also showing that the prevalence of lack of breastfeeding in this group is more than twice as high as the prevalence of underweight children. CONCLUSIONS: The hypothesis that breast milk has a protective effect on overweight and childhood obesity has evidences in its favor in the present study, however, more in - depth studies should be carried out.