Nutritional status of students in the Colcapirhua municipality

Abstract

Introduction. Nutritional status is defined as the situation in which an individual finds himself regarding intake and physiological adjustments. These take place after absorption of nutrients and they are enough to cover the expense given by the nutritional needs by age, sex, physiological characteristics and physical activities. The objective of the work is to evaluate the nutritional status of school students of primary and secondary in Colcapirhua municipality in Cochabamba department. Methodology. The work is descriptive, transversal, observational and prospective; they were examined 7122 students from 5 to 19 years old of schools. Results. Excess problems reach to 33% which of them 8.1% correspond to overweight men, while women correspond to 9,6% and the overweight men 9,6% and the women 6%. Deficit problems reached to 3,2% of which the 2% correspond to men with malnutrition/ anemia, while women represent 1% and severe malnutrition for both sexes 0,2%. Discussion. Data show that the overweight doubles, the difference in obesity is catastrophic and the low weight is also different than expected. Thus study shows results have changed significantly during a period of 6 years. We can say that based on stablished diagnoses, the risk of malnutrition must be recognized in a timely manner without waiting for the problem to occur.