Abstract

ARROYO-BARAHONA, Esteban; HERNANDEZ-HERNANDEZ, Rosa; HERRERA-MOGOLLON, Héctor  and  PEREZ-GUILLEN, Analy. Fat and muscle area associated with body mass index in school children from two rural schools from el Hatillo municipality, Miranda state, Venezuela. INCI [online]. 2008, vol.33, n.2, pp.146-151. ISSN 0378-1844.

Malnutrition is a priority to public health management and epidemiologic research. The aim of this work was to associate the aRM fAT aREA (AFA) and arm muscle area (AMA) with the body mass index (BMI) in children from two rural schools of El Hatillo Municipality, Miranda State, Venezuela, in order to evaluate the degree of malnutrition by overweight or underweight, using combined indicators. Data from 193 children from the Abilio Reyes Ochoa school and 115 children from the Concentración Nacional Sabaneta school, aged 3-10 years, was gathered. The proportions of AFA, AMA and BMI between schools were analyzed, not showing significant differences (p>0.05). A correspondence analysis showed that extreme values of AFA and AMA were associated to extreme values of BMI, evidencing a typical U-shaped Guttman effect with high statistical significance (p<0.001) for all cases. The ROC curves showed that the BMI is an efficient indicator for overweight diagnosis, whereas positive diagnosis of an underweight condition showed to be less efficient. Combined use of the indicators and BMI, as well as the consideration of specific socioeconomic conditions for each evaluated group was shown to be the best way to achieve nutritional diagnosis in epidemiologic research

Keywords : Análisis de Correspondencias; Área Grasa y Muscular; Escuelas Rurales; IMC.