Objective: To verify the association between the behavioral, biopsychological, and socioeconomic factors in overweight and obese students.
Subjects and methods: The sample involved 393 students from state and private schools in Florianópolis/SC, mean age of 9.9 ± 1.7, with 41% male subjects. A questionnaire adapted from Oliveira e cols. was applied in the interview; anthropometric information (body mass and height) was used to calculate the BMI, and individuals were classified in overweight and obese according to Conde and Monteiro.
Results: As for the distribution of obesity and overweight by gender, girls showed a similar degree, while among boys, overweight individuals represented 77% of the sample. There were associations between female gender, economic status, ethnicity, school, and type of food with p ranging from < 0.001 to 0.003.
Conclusion: It was found that the behavioral, biopsychological, and socioeconomic factors seem to interfere with overweight and obesity in students of Florianópolis.