Background: Population exposed to chronic undernutrition in early life seems to be more susceptible to obesity in adulthood due to the development of mechanisms that improve the efficiency of energy use. Therefore, these individuals have relatively reduced energy requirements (thrifty phenotype).
Objective: To investigate, among women living on severe socioeconomic vulnerability, whether short stature, a marker for undernutrition in early life, is associated with excess body weight but not with a high energy intake.
Methods: This cross-sectional study, carried out between July and November 2008, evaluated 1308 women from all (N = 39) Quilombola communities of Alagoas. Adequacy of energy intake was estimated by the ratio between energetic ingestion and the estimated energy requirement (EER).
Results: The prevalence of short stature (≤ 154.8 cm) was 43.0% and 52.4% had excess body weight (body mass index ≥ 25 kg/m2), being that 33.1% were overweight and 19.3% obese. Excess body weight was higher among women with short stature (56.6% vs 49.2%; P = .008), even after adjusting for age, energy intake, and per capita income (prevalence ratio = 1.16; 95% confidence interval = 1.04; 1.28). The ratio of energy intake/EER was independent of women's stature.
Conclusion: Excess body weight among Quilombola women represents a serious health problem. Short stature was significantly associated with excess body weight but not with a high energy intake. "Thrifty phenotype" may be one of the plausible explanations for this finding.
Keywords: health surveys; obesity; protein-energy malnutrition; social vulnerability.