[Prevalence of overweight and childhood obesity in Feira de Santana-BA: family detection vs. clinical diagnosis].
OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of overweight and obesity in children attending public and private schools in the urban area of Feira de Santana-BA; to evaluate both the perception of excessive weight gain by guardians and the prevalence of treatment of those children.


METHODS
Cross-sectional study with 699 children, whose age ranged from 5 to 9 years old, attending public and private schools of Feira de Santana-BA in 2001. Overweight was defined as body mass index (BMI)> or =85th percentile and obesity as BMI > or =95th percentile both for age and gender. The level of perception of children's excessive weight gain by guardians was evaluated by means of individual interviews.


RESULTS
Total prevalence rates were 9.3% for overweight and 4.4% for obesity, without statistically significant difference among age and gender. White ethnic group was related only to overweight. Prevalence for overweight and obesity was, respectively, 6.5% and 2.7% for public schools and 13.4% and 7.0% for private ones. Guardians suspected that 11.7% of the children presented excessive weight gain. Only 11.1% of them were submitted to treatment. A percentage of 22.2% of these treatments were performed by specialized professionals.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of overweight and obesity was high and similar to some studies in Brazil; even though excessive weight gain can be recognized by children's guardians, they are not aware of the necessity of treatment.
D015992:Body Mass Index; D001938:Brazil / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D014505:Urban Population