Abstract:

The objective of this study is to demonstrate the anthropometric and social profiles, as well as the incidence of overweight and obesity among women aged 20 to 50 years old in the outskirts of São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo. The research is characterized as a descriptive research. The study population included N=200 female participants. From these, a N=65 sample was selected and it met the following criteria: all of the individuals gavetheir free consent to full participation, signed a standard consent form, they were mothers of pupils enrolled in the researched institution aged 20 to 50 years old and they had to be present and participate in the school parent teacher meeting. The researched institution is an elementary public school located in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo City. To collect data, a standardized, validated, self-applied questionnaire was used in order to obtain demographic, genetic, behavior and socioeconomic information. The data were analyzed through descriptive statistics. The results demonstrate that, in the studied sample of women with low socioeconomic level, the prevalence of overweight (44.6%) and obesity (15.4%) were considered relevant, similar to some studies made in the Brazilian population. The body mass index (BMI) is significantly related to the waist circumference (WC), because it is an approximate indicator of the total fat and of the abdominal fat respectively and may be used together with the Nutritional Diagnosis. We concluded that overweight and obesity reach relevant to women from underprivileged social classes.

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