OBJECTIVES: to assess the association between parents 'Body Mass Index and schoolchildren from the age of 7 to 14 years old. METHODS: cross sectional epidemiological study with 886 schoolchildren from two public and two private schools in Florianópolis Island, Santa Catarina state. Schoolchildren and theirs parents anthropometric diagnostic was defined from the respectively BMIfor age according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and WHO cutoff points. The association between parents BMI and schoolchildren was estimated through the prevalence ratio (PR) with confidence interval (CI) 95% and Pearson 's chi-square test with the significant value of p<0.05. RESULTS: higher overweight and obesity prevalence was verified in male students, 29.9%, compare to 17.7% to female students (p<0.001). Significant statistical relation between female students BMI and theirs mothers BMI was found, according to PR=1.63; CI95%=1.1-3.0;p=0.02 and theirs fathers BMI, PR=1.78; CI95%= 1.1-3.5; p=0.01. The association between male students IMC and theirs mothers and fathers did not show significant statistical relation. CONCLUSIONS: the female students prevalence of show overweight or obesity is 1.63 times higher when theirs mothers also showed the same nutritional status and 1.78 times higher when the father shows overweight/obesity in comparison to mothers and fathers with normal weight or underweight.
Body mass index; Obesity; Students; Parents
