Hábitos alimentarios, estado nutricional de los estudiantes de la Unidad Educativa Manuel Córdova Galarza. 2016

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To determine the eating habits and nutritional status of the students of the Manuel Córdova Galarza Educational Unit, in the Baños parish. Cuenca, 2016. METHODOLOGY: This research project was a cross - sectional descriptive study, with a population of 320 students aged 15 to 18 years and a random sample of 170 students. The technique used to assess the nutritional status was weight, height and body mass index. The growth curves for adolescents of the Ministry of Public Health (based on WHO growth patterns) and the Food habits was applied a food survey taking as a model the KIDMED questionnaire. For the data analysis and tabulation, the statistical software IBM SPSS Statistics 23.0 and Microsoft Excel 2013 were used. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 170 students, who were 52% female and 48% male, 75.3% of whom presented normal nutritional status; 10% thinness; 11.2% overweight and 3.5% presented obesity. 87% of adolescents had inadequate eating habits, while only 13% of adolescents showed adequate eating habits. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the students (75.3%) had an adequate nutritional status, however a high percentage of adolescents (87%) had inadequate eating habits. Overweight predominated in females (16%) and obesity was higher in males (4.5%). Likewise, students aged 15 to 16 had a higher percentage of overweight and obesity (68.4% and 31.6%, respectively). Adolescents aged 15 to 16 years and male presented a higher percentage of inadequate eating habits (61.2% and 87.6% respectively)