Abstract

CAMELO, Sandra et al. Project "EDUCALIMENTAMIR" of the municipality of Mirandela. Nutrícias [online]. 2012, n.14, pp.16-19. ISSN 2182-7230.

Introduction and Objectives: The project "EDUCALIMENTAMIR" of the municipality of Mirandela intends to promote healthy eating behaviours through awareness raising and educational and recreational activities of nutrition education for the children of 12 preschools and 16 1st Cycle of Basic Education schools (CBE). Methodology: In a first phase of this project, professionals in the field of dietetics and nutrition collected anthropometric data (weight, height, Body Mass Index (BMI) percentiles for BMI / Age according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), of 145 children from pre-school and 688 children in the 1st Cycle of Basic Education, out of 165 children enrolled in pre-school and 782 children in a 1st CBE schools. In this phase, a questionnaire on eating habits and physical exercise was also answered by 142 students from the 1st CBE from 6 schools randomly selected. In the 2nd phase, awareness-raising and fun activities about healthy eating, were carried out to all students enrolled in 12 public establishments of pre-school and in 16 schools 1st CBE of this city. Results: Among the children evaluated from preschool, there were 69 boys and 76 girls. The results showed that 2,8% were underweight and 62,8% normal weight, 15,8% pre-obese and 18,6% obese. Among the children of the 1st CBE, 348 were boys and 340 were girls. It was revealed that 1,5% were underweight, 58,6% of normal weight, 17,2% pre-obese and 22,8% obese. Discussion and Conclusions: Thus, this study concludes that the prevalence of overweight children in preschool is 34,4% and 40% in the 1st CBE, which supports the need of nutrition education interventions as streamlined by this municipality.

Keywords : Nutrition education; Children; Eating behaviours.

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