Comparison of the body composition of preschool residents in regions littoral and not littoral/Comparacao da composicao corporal de pre-escolares residentes em regioes litoranea e nao litoranea

The objective of this study was to compare the body composition of preschool children from two areas; a coastal and a non coastal one. It was a descriptive research. The sample was 97 children from 3 to 6 years old who attended public day care centers in two different cities. It was studied weight, height and body mass index (BMI). To calculate the anthropometric indices, the program Epi Info version 3.3.2. was used and font the statistics analysis was used the Test "t' student and standard medium diversion. As a result concerning weight, the shore day care centre presented an average 20.29 [+ or -] 4.24 and the other one 20.96 [+ or -] 3.47. Concerning height, the shore one got an average of 111.61 [+ or -] 4.96 and the non shore 110.82 [+ or -] 6.37. Whereas the BMI had an average of 16.21 [+ or -] 3.01 in the coastal day care centre and the other one an average of 16.69 [+ or -] 2.19. Regarding the BMI classification, 64% of all studied children, presented some nutritional risks. From those 34% presented malnutrition risks and 38% of those where from shore areas and 24.7% from non shore areas. About weight/overweight, 34% were at risk and 30% of those lived in shore areas and 38.3% in non shore areas. 32% are eutrophic children, being 51.6% from shore day care centers and 48,4% from the other area. As a conclusion, the place where children live is not a crucial element to interfere on the nutritional stage, as there were no significant differences on the results.