Objective: To establish prevalence of overweight and obesity in children and adolescents from the city of Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil, and investigate the association of risk of overweight and obesity with gender, age and type of school.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study. Students between 7 and 17 years of age were selected from 396 public and private schools of Maceió. After randomization, data were collected by questionnaire. Weight and height were measured (body mass index = weight:height2). Overweight and obesity were defined, respectively, as body mass index greater than the 85th percentile and equal or greater than the 95th percentile for age and gender.
Results: The final sample included 1253 students (706 females). One hundred sixteen students were overweight and fifty six students were obese. Obesity was significantly associated with students between 7 and 9 years of age, when compared to the 10 and 13 year olds (p<0.04) and the 14 and 17 year olds (p<0.02). Private school students were more likely to be overweight (OR=2.2; CI95%:1.36 - 3.32) and more likely to be obese (OR=4.7; CI95%:2.32 - 9.34) than students
Conclusion: The prevalence of overweight and obesity were, respectively, 9.3% and 4.5%. Overweight and obesity were significantly more frequent among private school students.