Abstract

Obesity increased in preschool children attending day care centers in Chile from 5% in 1985 to 10.8% in 2000. We assessed the nutritional status and body composition by deuterium dilution, in preschool children attending day care centers. In the whole group (n = 681), 3 to 5 year old children were classified according to weight-for-height (ZWH) and height-for-age (ZHA) Z scores from the NCHS reference. We found 28.5% overweight, 13.2% obese, and 18.6% deficient in height-for-age. From this group, 239 children were evaluated for total body water (TBW) and fat percentage. Normal children in this group have a lower percentage of water (59.6 ± 3.9%) and higher fat (22.2 ± 4.7%) than the reference child. The association between the percentage of fat and skinfolds' sum (tricipital, bicipital, suprailiac, subescapular), was greater for overweight and obese children (r = 0.70). At present, validation of anthropometric models to evaluate fat and water content is underway in Chile.