Abstract:

Introduction: To identify the nutritional status of the population, there are a variety of techniques, such as, for example, using impedance techniques, IAC, body mass index (BMI) and the thickness of the skin folds. Being the BMI the indicator most widely used for its easy handling. Aim: check/analyze for this group investigated the body mass index shows a good consistency with the percentage of fat, to classify underweight, normal weight or overweight. Materials and methods: The sample was composed of students from 10 to 13 years, residing in the city of Joinville-SC. Were collected weight, height, and the folds tricipital and subscapular skinfold. We used the protocols of Slaughter (1988) and the classification proposed by Lohman (1987). The BMI was used as an indication of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention-CDC. For the statistical analysis, was used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, the Spearman correlation test, the index Kappa, and the descriptive analysis of frequency. Result: The test of Spearman showed a strong correlation in the boys rs=+0,767., and in the girls rs=+0,767. Already the index Kappa (k) showed a correlation low between the methods, k=0,2214 for boys and k=0,2219 for girls. Conclusion: Although the BMI and the fat percentage have shown a strong correlation, it was observed that these methods do not present a good agreement, since it only amounted to 55.1% girls and 47.3% of boys were classified simultaneously, demonstrating that the BMI is not a good predictor of nutritional status.

Keywords: