Abstract:

Introduction: Obesity rates among young people are increasingly growing in the world. Overweight has doubled over the past few decades and children and adolescents tend to maintain or increase weight until adulthood, because food intake and lack of physical activity act as factors for increased fat. Objective: evaluate the food intake of adolescents schoolchildren and correlate eating habits and physical exercise, classifying the current state of adolescentes and identifying the prevalence of overweight. Materials e Methods: Qualitative-quantitative cross-sectional study with 49 schoolchildren, between 10 and 14 years old in a college in the metropolitan region of Recife. A questionnaire of food intake and physical exercise was applied and weight and height was collected for BMI. Results and Discussion: The prevalence of obesity was n=7 (14,28%), overweight n=10 (20,41%), malnutrition n=2 (4,08%) and eutrophication n=30 (61,22%). The percentage of overweight and obesity among girls was n=10 (32,25%) and the boys was n=7 (38,88%). The prevalence of processed foods was n=12 (66,66%) male and n=23 (74,19%) female. There was a higher percentage of physical activity in boys, n=17 (94,44%) while in the girls it was from n=26 (83,87%). Conclusion: Obesity and overweight rates were high in the study, as well as inadequate food intake. Physical activity was observed in the studied population, but the need for interventions and nutritional guidance for students is still evident.

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