ESPE Abstracts

Introduction: The Body Mass Index (BMI) is an essential indicator for the nutritional assessment of children and reflects the exposure to health conditions that are harmful to the development of this population.

Objective: To analyze the temporal trend of the BMI of Brazilian children, 0 to < 10 years old from 2010 to 2021.

Methods: Descriptive ecological study. Data obtained from e-SUS Primary Care. The prevalence rate of the categories was obtained: severe thinness (ST), thinness (T), eutrophy (E), overweight (OW), obesity (OB), and severe obesity (SOB), and the trend was calculated by segmented linear regression, the variations annual percentages (APCs). In addition, time series analysis was performed in the Joinpoint Regression Program.

Results: In children under five years old, there was a decreasing character in “ST” and “OB” (APC: -3.9; P<0.001 and APC: -1.6; P=0.026, respectively), while “E” showed an increasing trend (APC: 0.4; P=0.007). “T” showed a decreasing trend in the South until 2018, changing its character to increasing from then on (APC: -1.3; P=0.012 and APC: 6.8; P=0.008). When analyzing children aged 5 to 10 years, there was a decreasing trend for “ST” and “E” (APC: -5.0; P<0.001 and APC: -0.6; P=0.001, respectively). The “OW” (APC: 1.1; P=0.004), “OB” (APC:4.9; P<0.1), and “SOB” (APC:3.4; P<0.1) categories showed an increasing trend, except for the Northeast, where “SOB” showed a stationary trend.

Conclusion: Up to 5 years of age, a reduction in “ST” and “OB” and an increase in “E” denotes an improvement in the nutritional quality of this age group. In the age group of 5-10 years, there was also a reduction in “ST”, but the increase in “OW”, “OB” and “SOB” and concomitant reduction in “E” denote worsening of the nutritional diagnosis of this population. These data, associated with the increase in “T” in children under five years of age in the region, denounce the nutritional disparities between age groups and regions in Brazil and highlight the need to implement differentiated strategies to promote adequate nutrition for Brazilian children.