The prevalence of excess weight between adolescents of private schools from Fortaleza: preliminary data

Abstract

Nowadays overweight is a condition that prepares adolescents to several chronical diseases in the future. Thus, the objective was to fi nd out overweight and obesity cases in private schools’ adolescents from Fortaleza. 307 students between 12 and 17 years of age were investigated in the months of March and June of 2007, by means of a form application in which socio-demographic features, weight, height, Body Mass Rate (BMR) were recorded. Results highlighted that 41,4% of adolescents were between 14-15 years old, 52,1% attended highschool, 55,4% belonged to the female gender and 23,2% had an above normal BMR. Out of these, 19,9% were overweight, 3,3% were obese, 12,9% belonged to the male gender and 11% were between 12-13 years old. In this context, the nurse should implement intervention and prevention actions such as education in health and early detection of overweight cases.