Relação das alterações posturais e índice de massa corporal em escolares do ensino fundamental público de Santa Maria - RS

Abstract

This study has the objective of characterize children according to sex, age, postural disorders and Body Mass Index (BMI) by analyzing the scholar aged children from Basic Education attending classes at "Lívia Menna Barreto School" and "Marieta D'Ambrósio School", two public schools located at the city of Santa Maria-RS. The study is an exploratory and descriptive research, in which 149 children and adolescents were selected, being 89 female and 60 male, with ages ranging between 8 and 13 years. The period of the evaluated data was from the year 2000 to 2005. The characteristics analyzed during the postural inspection were the anteroposterior segmental alignment, posteroanterior segmental alignment and body segments lateral view, taking into account the spinal column disorders and the knee joint disorders. In order to categorize children as to their Body Mass index, a table with established values for overweight and obesity in children and adolescents, considering the sex and age was used, according. After the analysis of data, the results showed that valgus knee, lumbar hyperlordosis and dorsal hyperkyphosis were the most frequent postural disorders. It was observed in the group of children with ideal weight, that 65.6% presented valgus knee. Lumbar hyperlordosis was the most frequent disorder in both ideal weight (36.8%) and overweight (37.5) groups. As to dorsal hyperkyphosis, 14.5% of the children with ideal weight and 12.5% of overweighed children presented with this postural disorder.