Abstract

The Aim of the study was to analyze the prevalence of overweight and the anthropometric changes associated with cardiometabolic risk in schoolchildren belonging to public schools in a south-central area of Chile. Material and method: The research was descriptive, cross-sectional in a sample of 884 preschoolers and primary and secondary school students (472 men [53.39%] and 412 women [46.61%]) from the commune of San Ignacio, Ñuble. Statistical analyzes included prevalence according to sociodemographic characteristics and segmented regressions for changes associated with age in anthropometric variables of body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and waist-to-height ratio (WHtR). The Results show that the prevalence of overweight according to BMI corresponds to 49.55% of the total population evaluated, while the result of the segmented regression identified that the changes by age for BMI, WC and WHtR differ according to sex and nutritional status. In Conclusion, In Conclusion, the prevalence of overweight according to BMI corresponds to 49.55% of the total population evaluated, while the WHtR and WC ratio shows that 3 out of 10 schoolchildren present cardiometabolic risk. We also found that anthropometric changes in BMI, WC and WHtR differ by sex and nutritional status, increasing the differences by age and between normal weight and overweight students.