Resumo

GUERRERO, Arkady  e  SANCHEZ JAEGER, Armando. Body Mass Index by pubertal maturity in Venezuelan boys. An Venez Nutr [online]. 2009, vol.22, n.1, pp.20-24. ISSN 0798-0752.

During adolescence, the characteristics of whole body mass are measured by genetics and individual variability. For their evaluation, body mass index (BMI), an anthropometric indicator advised for nutritional evaluation, is taken into consideration, however, it has been described that it’s correlations with body fat decreases in 0,90 in prepubertal to 0,32 in pubertal children, highlighting the importance of improving it’s sensitivity considering race, gender and puberty degree. The purpose of this study was to explore the behavior of BMI according to puberty development en 150 suburban boys en the central region of Venezuela, with the intention of evaluating its association with biological maturity and/or chronological age during adolescence. BMI was built with age and height (weight/height2), using CDC as reference. The characterization of puberty development was achieved through self-evaluation. Software SPSS version 11.0 was used for analysis. Differences were established between the Mann- Whitney test (p< 0,05). The mean age was 14,2 ± 1,5 years, and the mean BMI was 19,2 kg./m². The nutritional characterization reported an 11,2% of “Low Weight” and 13% of “Obesity”. By evaluating puberty development according to age groups, it could be established that at age 14 there were subjects located at all stages of puberty development. A significant increase of BMI was observed as age stage of puberty development progressed, which was different to the results of the evaluation of BMI in subjects with equivalent puberty degree but different chronological age. The results permit the conclusion that BMI behavior according to the degree of puberty development was associated more to biological maturity tan chronological age.

Palavras-chave : Body mass index; adolescence; puberty.