The stage of nutrition transition in different Brazilian regions

Abstract

The stage of nutrition transition in Brazil at the end of the 1980s was evaluated using the data from a nationwide cross-sectional anthropometry survey in Brazil in 1989 (Pesquisa Nacional sobre Saúde e Nutrição-PNSN). Comparable estimates of undernutrition and obesity were produced for children from 6 to 35 months old (n = 3,641), adult males from 20 to 64 years old (n = 14,235) and adult females from 18 to 64 years old (n = 15,669). Body Mass Index (kg/m2) was employed to assess both undernutrition and obesity in adults and weight-for-age (undernutrition) and weight-for-height (obesity) indices were used for children. The 5th and 95th centiles of the distribution of these indices in a reference population were used as limits for the diagnosis of undernutrition and obesity, respectively. Ordering the frequency of the problems in the population showed obesity in women and undernutrition in children to be the two main nutritional disorders in the country. These two problems are the most frequent in the urban population of the North, Northeast and Center-West regions, and in the Southeast and Center-West rural regions. Obesity leads among both adults and children in the urban areas of the Southeast and South regions, and in the rural South. Only in the rural Northeast, the poorest region in the country, undernutrition leads among children, men and women. This mosaic of situations determines the need for a complete reassessment of traditional nutrition policies and programs employed in the country.