Complementary feeding: study on prevalence of food intake in two health centers of São Paulo city.

The infant feeding practices in the first year of life are of fundamental importance for their growth and development. This study was carried out aiming at checking on the prevalence of food intake by the infants during their first year of life. One-hundred-and-seventy-five children aged up to one year, attended to in two Health Centers of São Paulo city, Brazil, participated in this study. Their feeding practices, obtained through the status quo approach, were analyzed through multiple logistic regression models, using curves of prevalence for complementary food consumption. Fruit was the first solid food to be part of the infant diet, followed by vegetables, cereal, meat and/or eggs and, beans. Animal-protein-containing source foods (meat and eggs) entered the diet much later, being consumed by practically all children only at the end of their first year of life. The early introduction of complementary foods into the infant diet was made evident. The introduction of solid foods to complement breastfeeding is started with low-calorie density foods, in disagreement with the recommendations for Brazilian children. Results of this paper disclose a need for having programmatic actions in health education being carried out, in special those regarding exclusive breastfeeding promotion and orientation on the adequate introduction of complementary feeding.

[Nutritional status of adolescents: "risk of overweight" and "overweight" in a public school in São Paulo]. / Estado nutricional de adolescentes: "risco de sobrepeso" e "sobrepeso" em uma escola pública do Município de São Paulo.

This study aimed to assess the nutritional status of adolescents. A cross-sectional study was taken in a public high school in São Paulo, Brazil, with 92 students ages 11 to 17 years. The sample was performed using systematic statistical selection. Nutritional status of adolescents was assessed using body mass index (BMI), compared to WHO (1995) standards. Prevalence rates for "risk of overweight" and "overweight" were 27.9% and 4.6%, respectively, for boys, as compared to 10.2% and 16.3% for girls. Prevalence of "risk of overweight" and "overweight" was thus high for both sexes; the results were similar in comparison to other studies. In addition, the difference in nutritional status between genders was significant (p < 0.05).

Prevalence and risk factors in iron deficiency and anemia.

Iron deficiency anemia is nowadays the world most prevalent nutritional problem. Several studies concerning anemia prevalence were carried out in Brazil with pregnant women and children aged less than 5 years, restricted mainly to northeast and southeast regions of the country. More recently, groups other than those of pregnant women and children aged less than 5 years, such as school children and adolescents, have become the target of those concerned with the issue. The differences found out among the groups and the diversity of methodologies employed, prevent us from reaching an evolutionary profile concerning nutritional anemia in Brazil. However, the high rates of prevalence verified by the various studies carried out are enough for justifying the general interest in controlling and/or eradicating the disease. This paper presents a model of causal determination of anemia, that points out the diet as the principal immediate factor. The typical Brazilian diet is poor in bioavailable iron. The two foods--meat and beans--responsible for the totality of this mineral in the habitual Brazilian diet have been registering a decreasing intake in the last decades. Iron deficiency is also observed in the food practice of infants and children aged less than 5 years. This situation justifying the urgency in finding an effective intervention to control this relevant nutritional problem.

[Anemia in the first year of life and its relation to breast-feeding]. / Anemia no primeiro ano de vida em relação ao aleitamento materno.

INTRODUCTION: Many studies in this field justify the hypothesis that early weaning is one of the causes of anemia in the first year of life. This study seeks to discover the prevalence of iron deficiency anemia and its relation to the duration of breast-feeding among infants aged 0-12 months. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A sample of 317 infants of four school health centers in the city of S. Paulo (Brazil) was studied. The information about diet was obtained by interviewing the mothers. The presence of anemia was verified by hemoglobin concentration, using the cianometahemoglobin method, and the criteria recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) were utilized for the diagnosis. The duration of exclusive breast feeding was calculated by using the life table technique for censored data. RESULTS: The prevalence of anemia was found to be 14.5% for the whole population and 22.6% for infants aged more than 180 days. No association was found between anemia and time of breast-feeding; the median time were the same for both groups, anemic and non-anemic. COMMENTS: The results observed are more probably related to the demographic characteristics of the population studied and by no means lessen the importance of exclusive breast feeding in the prevention of anemia.

[Prevention of anemia in the first year of life in health centers of Santo André, São Paulo]. / Prevenção de anemia no primeiro ano de vida em centros de saúde do município de Santo André, São Paulo.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an iron prophylactic supplementation program, in three health centers of Santo André, in São Paulo state. The prevalence of anemia was identified in a control group consisting of 201 children of 1 year old. The intervention group consisted of 308 children younger than 3 months, but 55% of them gave up during the survey. The mothers were instructed to give them daily prophylactic doses of iron sulfate (6 mg of iron/day) when they were 4 or 6 months old, according to the kind of breast-feeding. The mothers were also instructed about feeding and anemia and its risk to children's health. When the children were 12 months old, the diagnosis of anemia was made through dosage of hemoglobin concentration and the results were compared with those of the control group. It was verified that the 2 groups presented similar prevalences. It is important to realize that children with low frequency of visits to the health centers had prevalence of anemia significantly higher than those with high frequency. Some factors that possibly contributed to the result of the intervention are discussed.