OBJECTIVES: to assess anthropometrically pré-school children nutritional status from the Municipal Child Education School system (EMEI's) in Mogi-Guaçu, São Paulo, Brazil. METHODS: based on a per conglomerate sample, estimated by equiprobability with 347 children from three to seven years old enrolled in nine of the 38 EMEI's in the survey. Individual measurements of weight, stature, complemented by social and economical data questionnaire. Measurements were controlled with the use of the z score and compared with the referential established by the National Health Statistical Center of the United States of America, and body mass index (BMI). RESULTS: a probable median dislocation of anthropometric indexes to the right of the normal curve related to the z score of weight for age indicators (+0.54; sd 1.48), height for age (+0.20; sd 1.02), BMI (+0.30; sd 1.13). CONCLUSIONS: the nutritional status of the children enrolled in the EMEI's does not point toward energy protein malnutrition (EPM). On the other hand, a problem of overweight and obesity was determined in the focused age group.
Growth; Child development; Nutritional status; Body mass index; Anthropometry
