Relationship between institutional food service in Nursery Schools and Household feeding with the nutritional status of preschool children attending two Nursery Schools in Valparaiso, Chile

Introduction: Obesity in children under 6 years of age, who attend Nursery Schools belonging to INTEGRA Foundation (Chile), may be associated with the diet received at school, their home or both. Objectives: To determine if there is a relationship between children’s dietary patterns and their nutritional status. Material and Methods: A descriptive, associative, cross-sectional method was used. Sample (n=33) was children 4 and 5 years old from two Nursery Schools from Valparaiso. It was assessed: i) energy intake provided by nursery school and household’s diets, according to the recommendations of the Chilean dietary guidelines and ii) nutritional status, W/A; W/H; H/A; body mass index, growth charts for children under 6 years of age, World Health Organization (Standards of the National Chilean Health Program for Children). Fisher’s exact test was used in order to associate food consumption patterns with nutritional status. Results: Nursery school provided the expected caloric contribution, while household provided 67% over the expected percentage (354 additional kcal per capita/day). From 21.2% to 27% of the children were overweight (W/H and BMI). Children with food consumption pattern 1 had normal nutritional status. Those with pattern 2 presented a 50% of malnutrition related to overconsumption. Fisher’s exact test was p=0.001. Conclusions: There is an association between dietary pattern and nutritional status of preschool children attending two INTEGRA Nursery Schools. This study is limited due to sample size