Temporal trend in the nutritional status of children in a Brazilian metropolis in light of food and nutrition policies

Abstract

Introduction. Brazil’s health system offers insights into addressing the double burden of malnutrition by proper population monitoring, coupled with local policies and national guidelines. Objective. To investigate the recent temporal trends in nutritional status indicators and its coverage of children aged two to five years from Campinas, a metropolis in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. Material and methods. The analysis of time series from 2018 to 2022 were conducted by accessing data from the Brazilian Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (SISVAN) due to regression analysis. Results. The number of children aged two to five in the SISVAN registry rose from 7,300 in 2018 to 11,171 in 2022, forming the study sample. In 2018, 700 were chronically undernourished, 306 underweight, and 977 overweight; by 2022, 530 showed stunting, 457 were underweight, and 1,084 overweight. Stunting prevalence declined from 9.6% (2018) to 4.7% (2022). Underweight dropped slightly from 4.2% to 4.1% over the years and overweight, consistently the highest indicator, ranged from 13.4% (2018) to 9.7% (2022). SISVAN’s coverage varied between 16.6% (2018) and 26.1% (2022), the lowest at 12.3% in 2020. The trend for stunting decreased significantly (APV: -15.01; CI95% -22.64; -6.62). Adding SISVAN’s coverage variable the model slightly reduced the declining stunting trend (APV: -12.12; CI95% -13.19; -11.04). Conclusions. Coordinated efforts to address nutritional challenges, from adequate population monitoring to the interaction between local policies and national guidelines, have shown positive health outcomes.