Motor performance in kaingang indigenous children

Abstract

Most research with indigenous people focuses on growth and nutritional problems, such as low height 3-6. The data reveal frequencies of short stature exceeding 40% in indigenous children between 0 and 9/10 years of age, as reported in studies conducted among indigenous people in Brazil published since 1990 7. The health situation of many indigenous people in Brazil is due largely to a combination of a lack of areas for production, a rapid increase in the population and drastic socioeconomic and cultural changes, with the loss of original economic alternatives and the introduction of new alimentary standards 7 , in addition to infectious and contagious alimentary diseases in children 8 , characterized