Capacidade cardiorrespiratória e distribuição de gordura corporal de mulheres com 50 anos ou mais

Verificar a relação entre capacidade cardiorrespiratória e gordura corporal em mulheres. Foram analisadas 229 mulheres com idade entre 50 e 84 anos. Foi realizada avaliação antropométrica e calculada a razão cintura/quadril, bem como o índice de conicidade. A capacidade cardiorrespiratória foi avaliada pelo teste de caminhada de seis minutos. Com o pedômetro foi possível avaliar: velocidade, comprimento da passada e total de passos. Os resultados foram distribuídos em quartil, e a comparação feita pela análise de variância com post-hoc. A relação entre teste de caminhada de seis minutos e a antropometria foi feita pela correlação de Pearson. Os resultados revelaram que mulheres com capacidade cardiorrespiratória no quartil4 apresentaram idade estatisticamente menor (p<0,05) que as do quartil1. As medidas antropométricas apresentaram valores menores (p<0,05), quando comparados os resultados dos quartis3 e 4 com os quartis1 e 2. Conclui-se que mulheres com maior tecido adiposo e acúmulo de gordura central apresentam menor capacidade cardiorrespiratória.

Distribuição geográfica de agravos nutricionais entre escolares na cidade de Piracicaba-SP, Brasil

The objective was to map the prevalence of nutritional disorders in children attending the 1st to 4th grade of 12 public elementary schools located in the 5 administrative regions of Piracicaba, SP, each with its own socioeconomic profi le, from 2003 to 2006. A total of 16,068 children, divided into 8,133 (50.6%) girls and 7,935 (49.4%) boys, aged 7 to 11 years, were weighed and measured. Their nutritional status indicators heightfor-age (H/A), weight-for-age (W/A), and body mass index-for-age (BMI/A) were compared with those of the NCHS/CDC 2000 reference population and classifi ed according to the z-score cut-off points recommended by the World Health Organization. During that period, the Western Region, which has the lowest socioeconomic indicators, had the lowest z-score medians of the three anthropometric indicators assessed (p<0.0001) and was the only region to have a higher-than-expected stunting prevalence (3.0% with Z < -2). Excess weight prevalence was higher than expected in all regions. The Central Region, which has the highest socioeconomic indicators, had the highest excess weight prevalence (6.0% with Z > 2). Time had a positive effect on the stunted children, reducing the stunting rates in the regions with the lowest socioeconomic indicators. In conclusion, the three nutritional status indicators showed results suitable to the social and economic characteristics of each region. Although nutritional disorders have particular characteristics, they are a problem to the entire population.

Qualidade das medidas antropométricas produzidas em unidades de atenção básica à saúde da região de Botucatu-SP, Brasil

The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of weight measurements produced in Primary Health Care Centers in Botucatu and surroundings. 14 Health Care Centers were included, all of them located in four towns in the area of Botucatu (4,555; 5,656; 18,761 and 128,397 inhabitants). General conditions and scale calibration conditions found in those Health Care Centers were evaluated. In order to evaluate the weight accuracy obtained by the local team, 10 adult users of each Center were addressed by the rater during the service routine in order to get a new weight evaluation, immediately after the measurement made by the team. The statistic method applied for checking the weight measurement held in the Heath Care Center and the scales accuracy was the measurement error technique (MET). The results have showed that out of 19 scales, 6 of them overestimated the weight by 50 grams, 1 of them underestimated the weight by 200 grams and the others were accurate. Evaluated as a group, the result of the scale MET was 44.3g. Regarding the conformity of the measures obtained by the MET of the adults weighing in the Health Care Centers compared to the ones obtained by the researcher, the expected result was obtained in only one Center (< 100g). The results have showed data compromise, rather due to lack of health team training than due to the conditions of the equipment used for the measurement.