Abstract

MIRANDA-DURAN, Melissa et al. Double burden of malnutrition in bolivian preschool, school age children and adolescents living at high altitudes, municipality of La Paz. Cuad. - Hosp. Clín. [online]. 2021, vol.62, n.2, pp.15-25. ISSN 1562-6776.

Abstract Introduction: The simultaneous presence of growth retardation and excess weight in a person represents one of the main paradoxes in global public health and is of growing concern in Bolivia, where both conditions as a whole have not been addressed and occur in a context of nutritional transition in which the country finds itself. Objective: To describe the coexistence of the double burden of malnutrition at the individual level in the school population (3-19 years) of the municipality of La Paz. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional observational study was carried out with anthropometric data from 7,654 schoolchildren belonging to the municipality of La Paz in 2019. The prevalences and 95% confidence intervals were determined for wasting, stunting, overweight, obesity and overweight+obesity, by sex and age group. At the population level, the double burden of malnutrition (DBM) was estimated based on thresholds ofhigh prevalence suggested by international organizations, namely, prevalence above 20% and 10% for stunting and overweight, respectively. For individual level analyzes, DBm was defined as the coexistence of stunting and overweight + obesity in the three study groups and was compared with its expected value, underthe assumption of independent distributions of each condition. Results: At the population level, the prevalence of wasting for the entire sample analyzed was 3.7%, with no significant differences by sex. The prevalence of stunting for the year 2019 did not exceed 20% in all the age groups analyzed. The prevalence of overweight was higher than 10% for the group of schoolchildren and adolescents. Atthe individual level, the double burden of malnutrition was foundin 2.8%, 1.9% and 2.9% in preschool, schoolchildren and adolescents, respectively. Values that turned out to be lower than expected. Conclusions: The prevalence of double burden, growth retardation and overweight and obesity at the individual level, were lower than expected in the three study groups, assuming independent distributions ofthe two conditions. Despite this, the coexistence ofthe double burden in the municipality of La Paz must be addressed in appropriate public health policies and programs.

Keywords : Double burden of malnutrition; stunting; overweight; obesity; Bolivia.

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