Objective: To associate the nutritional status of elementary schoolchildren with their gender, age group, and economic status based on a cross-sectional study carried out at public schools in the municipality of Cruzeiro do Oeste, Southern Brazil.
Methods: The study was performed in 2010 including 939 schoolchildren aged six to ten years-old. The economical status of the families was classified based on a socioeconomic ranking questionnaire (Brazilian Association of Survey Companies), and the body mass index was calculated. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, and differences between independent groups were verified by Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests, while possible associations were verified by the chi-square test, being significant p<0.05.
Results: The prevalence of obesity in the sample was 8.0%, and overweight, 16.4%. No association was found between the socioeconomic and nutritional status or between the nutritional status and gender.
Conclusions: A high prevalence of overweight and obesity was found in this study, indicating that children of both genders are affected regardless of their economical status and age.