Nutritional status of children admitted to a shelter

Objective: To assess the nutritional status of children in a shelter located in the city of Recife, Northeastern Brazil. Methods: Retrospective cross-sectional study carried out with a sample of 166 children under five years of age admitted to a shelter in Recife, Pernambuco, between September 2007 and September 2012. The study variables were: gender, weight, height, age and reason for institutionalization. Nutritional status was determined based on the following anthropometric indicators: weight-for-age, height-for-age, weight-for-height and body mass index-for-age using the Z score and the World Health Organization growth curves standards. SPSS 13.0 was used for the statistical analysis. For all analyses, statistical significance was set at p