Evaluation of the nutritional status of adolescents enrolled in the General High School from the Superior School of Huejutla, UAEH

Abstract

Nowadays, one of the main public health concerns worldwide is overweight and obesity; in addition, this event has developed significant damage in the pediatric population (infants, children and adolescents). Therefore, it is well known that the reason is an energy disproportion between the calories consumed and spent. Furthermore, the aim study was to anthropometrically assess the current health condition and the degree of overweight and obesity in young subjects between 14 and 17 years of age from the General High School from the Superior School of Huejutla, the Autonomous University of State of Hidalgo. The project was realized in a sample of teenagers (N = 99), conventional anthropometric measurements were engaged such as: height, weight, abdomen circumference, arm circumference. The size in percentiles according to the BMI of the tables of growth and development curves (CDC) was used: poor (<5 percentile), lean (5 <95th percentile), overweight (85 <95th percentile) and obesity (> 95th percentile). Moreover, the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of each of the subjects in the sample was measured in triplicate. The results obtained were subdivided into low weight (6.6%) normal weight (71.71%), overweight (18.18%) and obesity (37.14%) according to the BMI. In this way, they were grouped according to percentiles in: normal pressure (4.4%), prehypertension (12.12%) and hypertension (5.05%). An isolated result was gained in the prevalence of nutritional states of risk of overweight and obesity. Nevertheless, the trend in this population is weight gain.