Estado Nutricional y características de lonchera escolar en dos Instituciones Educativas Públicas de Lima

Background: Several studies have been observing that the prevalence of overweight and obesity worldwide has been increasing progressively in almost all stages of life. Excess weight at an early age has an impact on adult health, giving way to chronic degenerative diseases. The objective was to evaluate the nutritional status and characteristics of the school snack of girls from 9 to 11 years old who attended two public educational institutions (IEP) in Lima. Methods: Descriptive, analytic, cross-sectional study conducted on 474 girls schoolchildrens of two public schools selected. To determine nutritional status, anthropometric measurements of weight, height, age, and Body Mass Index (BMI) were performed. To evaluate the school snack, a questionnaire developed and previously validated was applied in order to observe and note the components of the lunch box that the child showed at the request of the interviewer. Results: In both educational institutions, more than 30% of girls were overweight and 20% were obese. Likewise, it was observed that only 20% of the schoolchildren brought adequate lunch boxes, meaning that the majority of lunch boxes contained foods and products with high calorie content and a lower proportion of fruits. Conclusions: A high excess weight has been detected in the school population, as well as snacks that are not appropriate to the standards established by the Ministry of Health.