Classificação do índice de massa corporal e prevalência de doenças crônicas em idosas

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the use of the Body Mass Index (BMI) for diagnosing the nutritional status of population groups. It has also been used in the assessment of overweight, being a measure recommended by the World Health Organization and by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institute of Health. This study aimed to verify the prevalence of chronic diseases according to three classifications of body mass index in elderly women. This is a cross-sectional study that evaluated a sample of elderly women aged ≥60 years, living in southern Brazil and undergoing bone densitometry. Sociodemographic data (age, education and occupation) and prevalence of chronic diseases related to cardiovascular health (hypertension, dyslipidemia, diabetes mellitus and obesity) were collected using a standardized questionnaire, informed by the interviewer. For anthropometric assessment, the standards used were: weight, height and BMI. Elevated elderly women with greater weight correspond for the references by Lipschitz, WHO and PAHO, respectively. 288 elderly women participated, with a mean of 67.61 ± 5.78 years. Regarding the evaluated chronic cardiovascular diseases, the most prevalent ones found were systemic arterial hypertension (63.2%), dyslipidemia (37.2%) and diabetes mellitus (16%). Body mass indexes, classified by WHO and PAHO, were associated with SAH and DM. The Lipschitz classification is only significant for DM.