Body adiposity and nutritional status among indigenous children in villages of Kaxinawá tribe in Southwest Amazon rain forest, State of Acre, Brazil

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate body adiposity and nutritional status among indigenous children from Kaxinawá Tribe by using anthropometry. The sample was composed by 93 children aged 6 to 10 years and of both sexes, living at the villages Kaxinawá do Caucho e Paroá, in the state of Acre, Brazil. Body adiposity was estimated by skinfold thickness at triceps and subscapular sites and by the sum of these two skinfolds. Nutritional status was identified by the indicators weight-for age (w/a), stature-for-age (s/a) and weight-for-stature (w/s) using z-score cut-off points suggested by the World Health Organization. For comparison between sexes, the Student’s t-test was used. Low body fat prevalence was observed in 83.7% of boys and 62% of girls. There were significant differences between sexes at 8 and 10 years of age for the triceps skinfolds and the sum of skinfolds. For the subscapular skinfold, the difference was observed only at 8 years of age. Chronic malnutrition was detected in both sexes and the prevalence depended upon the applied criteria. The prevalence was 76.3% for s/a and 47.3% for w/a. Acute malnutrition was present among 12.9% of children when using w/s. Boys tended to have higher prevalence for chronic malnutrition (s/a and w/a), while the girls for acute malnutrition (w/s). It was concluded that there is a high prevalence of malnutrition and low body adiposity among indigenous Kaxinawá children in the state of Acre, Brazil.