engleski

Prevalence and differences in the level of nutrition with children of an early and preschool age

The aim of this research was to determine the prevalence in the level of nutrition and define whether there is a certain difference in the number of early and preschool-aged children compared to the category of nutrition level. There were 138 children participating in the research, namely 66 girls and 72 boys of the Rijeka Kindergarten. The height and body mass were measured based upon which the body mass index (BMI) was calculated. To determine the children’s level of nutrition, it was compared to table values of the international classification for the children and adolescents’ body mass index designed by Cole et al., (2000). The obtained results show that 59% of children were of normal weight, 26% of children were overweight, while 15% of them were obese. Out of the total number of examined children, 50% of boys were of normal weight, while 36.1% of them were overweight and 13.9% were obese. Girls were in a better position than boys when it comes to normal nutrition. Thus, 69.7% of them were of normal weight, but 15.1% were estimated as obese. There were 15.2% of overweight girls. The largest difference (p=0.00) in the level of nutrition between boys and girls was noticed in the group of normal and excess body mass, while in the group of obese children, the number of girls and boys is almost equal. There were no underweight children in the whole group. This research has shown that this problem exists even in the early and preschool education period. Data are extremely worrying, especially because a significant percentage of obese children already exists for both sexes. Future research should be directed towards finding the way and concrete measures or intervention programmes which should be undertaken in education to prevent further growth in the number of children categorised as overweight or obese.

children ; health ; level of nutrition ; education ; intervention programmes

nije evidentirano