ESTADO NUTRICIONAL E DESENVOLVIMENTO NEUROPSICOMOTOR DE CRIANÇAS EM COMUNIDADE URBANA DE SÃO LUÍS - 2008

Abstract

Descriptive study to assess the nutritional condition of children aged between zero and six years, accompanied by the Pastoral da Criança , through the anthropometric method by weight / age, height / age and weight / height indicators, using as a reference the NCHS standard. The development of children was investigated using the Denver Development Screening Test II to evaluate the personal-social aspects, fine motor adaptive coordination, language and rude motor coordination. In this survey took part 80 children aged between zero and less than six years. Of the children studied 52.5% were eutrophic and 47.5% were malnourished. Most of the malnourished children were between the 0 to 24 months age group. The malnutrition in the weight / age indicator was 23.75%; in the height / age was 37.5% and was 12.5% in the weight / height indicator, but some children were malnourished in more than one indicator. Changes in development were present in 26 (32.5%) children, considering there was a great evidence in malnourished children, because of among 38 (47.5%) malnourished children, 24 showed changes, i.e. 63.15%, but among 42 (52.5%) eutrophic children only 2 (4.76%) were lagging behind. As for the development assessed areas, it was found that most of the delays encountered were in the fine motor-adaptive domain, 28 (35%), followed by personal-social aspects, 25 (31.3%) and language, 19 (23, 8%). It was noted how important is to measure when assessing the children s malnutrition, because the highest rate of malnourished children was at the height / age indicator. The malnutrition was considered, statistically, a significant risk factor for change in child development.