Obesity and undernutrition in a very-low-income population in the city of Maceio, northeastern Brazil

Obesity is the nutritional disorder which has shown the greatest increase i n prevalence, even in those countries in which deficiency diseases represen t a severe public health problem. The goal of the present study was to anal yse the anthropometric profile of a community living in the outskirts of Ma ceio, capital of Alagoas (northeastern Brazil), and to investigate the hypo thesis of a coexistence of undernutrition and obesity in a very low-income population. The survey was conducted on 315 families (1247 individuals). Am ong the children (aged l10 years), the prevalence of wasting, stunting and wasting plus stunting was 3.8, 8.3 and 8.7 % respectively. Wasting (10.2 %) was the most prevalent form of undernutrition among adolescents; nonethele ss, a higher frequency of stunting (11 %) and overweight-obesity (5.5 %) wa s seen specifically in girls, in agreement with trends found in other studi es. Adults exhibited a high prevalence of overweight-obesity (25 %), but st unting was also present (22 %). Of the stunted individuals, 30 % were overw eight-obese and 16.3 % were underweight. There were eighty-six families wit h at least one parent who was underweight (27 %) and 104 families with at l east one parent who was overweight (33 %). Underweight and overweight-obesi ty were both present in ninety-six households (30 %). These results may ind icate that better living conditions in urban areas in a population 'adapted ' to chronic famine might increase the susceptibility to obesity. Consideri ng the harm caused by the cumulative effect of these two conditions (undern utrition in childhood and obesity in adult life) there is a clear need for new studies to uncover the determinant factors so that preventive measures can be implemented.