Índices de sobrepeso, obesidade e o volume da atividade física como preditores da condição de saúde de escolares adolescentes no nordeste do Estado de São Paulo

Abstract

Featured in the excessive accumulation of body fat, related to several factors (genetics, metabolic and environment), the overweight and obesity are presented as a serious public health problem in the modern life. The growing world prevalence reaches all the social layers, a situation that made the World Health Organization (WHO) to classify it as a non-transmission chronic disease (NTCD). Associated to risk factors to health, like diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases and degenerative diseases like Parkinson and Alzheimer, the obesity has been taken to death more than any other epidemic. Epidemiologic data of overweight / obesity in the Brazilian population show a growth in its prevalence between the 70 and 90 decades of the XX century, in the order of 53%, according to the American – Latin Consensus. The sample consisted of 120 students of the eight level of Fundamental Teaching and first year of the Medium Teaching, aged between 14 and 16 from Franca e region, arising from six school units, of private and public net, with twenty students of both sex by teaching establishment, chose in a random way. The objective of the research was to verify the levels and percents of fat of the teenagers, by the anthropometric valuation of the BMI – Body Mass Index (weight and height), and the body fat by the predictive equation of Guedes (Guedes Protocol), with inspect of tricipital and subscapular cutis pleats, making a relation of these data with the volume and intensity of the physical exercises made in the physical education classes, supplemented with the extra-school physical activities (ESPA). The classification of the BMI followed the World Health Organization parameters (WHO – 1997) and the body fat in accordance with the table of classification of Deurenberg Obesity Level – 1990. The transversal methodology used personal inquiry index, by informative questionnaire, and the statistic treatment was realized by the use of the Statistic Software for PC, Statistics for Windows, V.5.07. With the sample results, it was possible to conclude that the teenagers’ sample of this studied age in the northeast region of São Paulo State did not show high index of overweight and obesity, been very different of the pointed out results by other authors, Health Ministry and World Health Organization.