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OBJECTIVE: To perform a review of studies of food consumption and nutritional adaptation in Brazilian infants pointing the main findings and limitations of these studies. DATA SOURCE: The articles were selected from Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (Lilacs) (Latin-American and Caribbean Literature in Health Sciences), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and Science Direct in Portuguese and in English. The descriptors were: ''food consumption'', ''nutritional requirements'', ''infant nutrition'' and ''child''. The articles selected were read by two evaluators that decided upon their inclusion. The following were excluded: studies about children with pathologies; studies that approached only food practices or those adaptation of the food groups or the food offert; and studies that did not utilize the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI). DATA SYNTHESIS: Were selected 16 studies published between 2003 and 2013. In the evaluation of the energy consumption, four studies presented energetic consumption above the individual necessities. The prevalence of micronutrients inadequacy ranged from 0.4% to 65% for iron, from 20% to 59.5% for vitamin A, from 20% to 99.4% for zinc, from 12.6% to 48.9% for calcium and from 9.6% 96.6% for vitamin C. CONCLUSIONS: The food consumption of Brazilian infants is characterized by high frequencies of inadequacy of micronutrients consumption, mainly iron, vitamin A and zinc. These inadequacies do not exist only as deficiencies, but also as excesses, as noted for energetic consumption.

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Metodologias de identificação de padrões alimentares a posteriori em crianças brasileiras: revisão sistemáticaMethods of a posteriori identification of food patterns in Brazilian children: a systematic review

ObjectiveTo evaluate the ability of anthropometric measurements to identify excess android fat and to propose cut-off points for excess central adiposity in children, according to age and sex.DesignA cross-sectional study with children from a municipality of Minas Gerais, Brazil. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analyses were performed to evaluate waist circumference (WC), waist-to-height ratio (WHtR) and conicity index (C-index) in estimating excess android fat by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA).SettingViçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil.SubjectsChildren aged 4–9 years (n 788).ResultsOverweight prevalence was 29·1 % and android fat percentage was higher among girls. All central fat measurements were able to discriminate excess android fat in the age groups evaluated, especially WC and WHtR, with cut-off points showing good sensitivity and specificity overall.ConclusionsBecause these methods are easy to obtain and inexpensive, it is possible to use WC, WHtR and C-index in population surveys to evaluate central obesity. The proposed cut-off points showed satisfactory values of sensitivity and specificity and can be used in epidemiological studies.

Introduction:Leprosy is an infectious disease whose etiologic agent is Mycobacterium leprae, manifested by dermatological and neurological signs and symptoms. Objective: To investigate neural changes and the degree of physical disability in the eyes, hands and feet before and after treatment, as well as sociodemographic and clinical profile of patients affected by leprosy. Method: A longitudinal epidemiological study comprising 155 patients with leprosy, from a spontaneous demand, diagnosed between March 2010 and February 2011, and treated with multidrug therapy (MDT) between March 2010 and July 2012 in a program for leprosy eradication in São Luis (MA), Brazil. Results: Before treatment, 46.5% of patients were considered as borderline, 51.6% had some alteration in the eyes and 52.3% in the feet, and the radial nerve (18.7%) was the most affected. There was a statistically significant difference between the changes in the radial nerve at the beginning of and after treatment. Conclusions: The analysis points to late diagnosis, as some patients have had abnormal neural and physical disabilities before treatment.