One in ten children up to 5 years old is overweight in Brazil
One in ten Brazilian children up to 5 years old is overweight. Overweight was also recorded in more than half of the mothers with children in this age group: 58.5 percent, according to data from the National Child Food and Nutrition Study (Enani-2019).
The survey commissioned by Brazil Ministry of Health evaluated 14,558 children and 12,155 biological mothers in 12,524 Brazilian households, in 123 municipalities in 26 states and the Federal District, between February 2019 and March 2020.
According to researchers, overweight impairs child growth and development and can lead to serious chronic diseases throughout life, such as cardiovascular problems, diabetes, hypertension and even cancer.
“Among Brazilian children under five years of age, 7 percent are overweight, and 3 percent are obese. Among biological mothers of children in this age group, overweight is noted in 32.2 percent of cases and obesity in 26.3 percent,” explained Enani-2019 coordinator Gilberto Kac, professor at Josué de Castro Institute of Nutrition, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (INJC/UFRJ).
Enani-2019 also found that almost a fifth of Brazilian children up to five years old (18.6 percent) are at risk of being overweight.
“These are children who need to be closely monitored, because the weight gain curve for this age group is already higher than recommended by the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO). At this stage, it is still possible to intervene and improve health status, avoiding short, medium, and long-term consequences,” said Kac.
Enani-2019 coordinator reiterated that the results bring up-to-date scientific evidence for the definition of public health policies.
“Until then, the most recent data on anthropometric nutritional status of mothers and children up to 5 years old were from 2006. Since then, the scenario has changed a lot. The prevalence of overweight in children in this age group increased from 6.6 percent in 2006 to 10 percent in 2019. Among mothers, the increase was from 43 percent to 58.6 percent in the same period,” he said.
Stature
One information caught the attention of Enani-2019 researchers: 7 percent of Brazilian children up to 5 years old have short stature for their age.
“Short stature shows that these children have suffered restrictions that hampered their growth and development. This condition may be due to recurrent infections and is related to low consumption of nutrients, possibly associated with food insecurity. The prevalence of the indicator decreases as the age group of children increases, which suggests that the situation has worsened in recent years,” explained Kac.
According to the survey, the prevalence of short stature is 9 percent among babies aged up to 11 months and 10.2 percent among those aged 12 to 23 months. The frequency of the problem is lower in children born up to 2016: 6.5 percent between 2 and 3 years old, 5.8 percent between 3 and 4 years old and 3.4 percent between 4 and 5 years old.
Enani-2019
Enani-2019 was commissioned by the Ministry of Health and coordinated by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). The project has a partnership with Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz), State University of Rio de Janeiro (Uerj) and Fluminense Federal University (UFF), and financed by the General Coordination of Food and Nutrition of the Ministry of Health and the National Institute for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).
According to UFRJ, it is the first representative survey in Brazil to simultaneously assess, in children under five years of age, breastfeeding practices, complementary feeding and individual food consumption, anthropometric nutritional status and micronutrient deficiencies, including iron and vitamin A deficiencies.
