Relationship between waist circumference and nutritional status in pre-school children from Botucatu, São Paulo

Waist circumference (WC) is highlighted as a factor linked with the development of cardiovascular disease and as a component of associated metabolic syndromes in adults. It has recently been identified as a risk factor in the pediatric age group. The objective here was to establish a correlation between BMI (body mass index) and WC in pre-school children enrolled in two municipal early childhood education centers in Botucatu (São Paulo State). The study was cross-sectional in nature, with 96 children being evaluated at the final stage of early education. Significant correlation was found between BMI and WC (r = 0.9 and p <0.0001), and 65.6% of children presented measurements that exceeded the normal waist circumference. 67.9% of well-nourished children showed high WC measurements. The study revealed a strong correlation between nutritional status, assessed by BMI, and waist circumference; more than 40% of non-obese children had WC above normal limits. The findings emphasize the importance of WC as an evaluation method, since it has a positive correlation with BMI and is able to identify central obesity in children who are not overweight or obese according to BMI/age criteria