Currently, overweight and obesity are characterized as worldwide epidemics that cause shortterm and long-term comorbidities. In children and adolescents, values grow rapidly and interventions should be done early. The study seeks to evaluate the prevalence of overweight and obesity in students from the 5th to the 9th grade of elementary school, aged between 10 and 16 years old from municipal public schools in the city of Campina Grande-PB. The crosssectional and descriptive study consisted of 574 students, 294 of whom were female and 280 were male. The indicators used to assess nutritional status were BMI / Age and Height / Age. According to BMI / Age, students were classified as thin, eutrophic, overweight and obese. They were also classified as very short height for age, short height for age, suitable height for age and high height, considering the Height / Age indicator. The results obtained show the prevalence of overweight in greater numbers in females (16%), while in obesity, the prevalence was more pronounced in males (9.6%). Together, overweight and obesity rate (21.6%) of the students evaluated. The observed values are consistent with studies carried out in other locations in the country, with the adoption of interventions to reduce this growing statistic being relevant. The support of multiprofessional health teams, together with the help of schools that show a fundamental role in the continuous education process, are extremely relevant.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.