A obesidade entre escolares : vivência das crianças e suas famílias

Abstract

Obesity has been frequently diagnosed among children in recent years, making it a public health problem. Learning more about the reality of these children and their families represents an important strategy to support health promotion and prevention actions. Thus, the objective of this study was to gather how obese children and their families experience, comprehend and deal with childhood obesity. The study was carried out in the city of Maringá, Paraná, among children between six and ten years old, as well as their mothers. Participants were selected from the nutritional evaluation report of children enrolled in the city's Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (SISVAN) in 2013. A total of 86 obese children were identified, most of whom (59.3%) were male, averaging eight years of age. The data were collected between January and May 2014, involving two methodological fronts: quantitative analysis involved interviewing 55 children, using part of the National Schoolchildren Health Survey (PeNSE), involving sociodemographic data, eating patterns, practice of physical exercise and body image perception; qualitative analysis consisted semi-structured interviews with 14 children and their mothers. To that end, the study selected families in which the mother and/or child showed greater ease of communication, time availability and openness to share their experiences with obesity. To analyze the quantitative data, descriptive analysis was used through simple and relative frequency, while thematic modality content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. The results showed that most interviewed obese children were male, from the C1 income class, averaged eight years of age and 67.3% of their guardians were overweight. The school environment was one of the main meal locations for the children and was favorable for the development of physical exercise. Qualitative data analysis revealed that all children identified themselves as obese and almost all wished to lose weight, given that as a result of obesity they are exposed to awkward and uncomfortable jokes from friend and family. It also showed that, overall, they have some knowledge of childhood obesity and acknowledge actions that contribute to its development and prevention. Likewise, the mothers recognize their children's overweight, but it is not always seen as a health problem or disease. In those cases in which a child experiences any difficulty resulting from overweight, initiatives by the mother are seen in order to reduce the child's weight. It is emphasized that most mothers wish for their children to be able to lose weight, but consider that this reduction does have to be considerable in order to be satisfactory. It is concluded that children and their families need support from health professionals in order to, together, articulate actions to help them face childhood obesity, encouraging family participation and support in adopting healthy habits.