The objectives of the study were to investigate whether the health conditions of mothers with short stature differed from those with normal stature, and to establish if these aspects were associated with the health of the offspring. Data relating to health and socio-economic, demographic and anthropometric conditions were collected from a probabilistic sample population consisting of 1180 mothers and 1511 children (, 10 years) living in the semi-arid region of the State of Alagoas, Brazil. Mothers were categorised according to stature, with those in the 1st quartile being defined as of short stature and those in the 4th quartile being defined as of normal stature and serving as a reference for the comparison of variables of interest. Following verification that maternal stature fulfilled parametric assumptions, its associations with the other variables were determined by calculating Pearson correlation coefficients. After excluding strongly self-correlated variables (r $0·70), the remaining variables were analysed by multiple linear regression. The results showed that low maternal stature was independently associated with obesity (percentage body fat $30; P¼ 0·045), abdominal adiposity (waist:hip ratio $0·85; P¼ 0·007) and high systolic blood pressure ($140 mmHg; P¼ 0·006). Short maternal stature was associated with low birth weight (,3000 g; P¼ 0·01) and stunting (height-for-age Z score , 22; P¼ 0·019) in the offspring. Thus, in the semi-arid region of Alagoas, women of short stature presented a higher prevalence of chronic degenerative diseases and produced less healthy children than women of normal stature. Anthropometry: Nutritional status: Stunting: ProgrammingIn line with the majority of developing countries, Brazil is experiencing a process of epidemiological transition characterised by a reduction in the prevalence of infectious-parasitic diseases together with an increase in morbidity and mortality caused by chronic non-transmissible diseases (1) . At the same time, the population is undergoing a nutritional transition in which undernutrition is replaced by obesity, a condition which is rapidly becoming a serious public health problem (2) . National surveys conducted by the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) (3) have revealed that the prevalence of weight deficit in Brazilian women decreased from 10·2 % in 1974-5 to 5·4 % in 2002-3. In contrast, the frequency of excess body weight increased from 28·6 % to 39·2 %, respectively, over the same time period.One explanation for this phenomenon relates to the modernisation and urbanisation of society, which is associated with alterations in food consumption habits and particularly with a tendency towards high-energy foods (simple carbohydrates and fats) (4) . However, following a study of the dietary profile of a poor population living in a shanty town in Maceió (capital of the State of Alagoas, Brazil), Florêncio et al. (5) discovered that, although the women ingested an average of 7238 kJ (1730 k...

Este trabalho teve por objetivo estimar a prevalência de anemia em crianças brasileiras segundo diferentes cenários epidemiológicos. Para isso, realizou-se uma revisão sistemática com metanálise dos resultados de estudos observacionais publicados nos últimos dez anos. A pesquisa de artigos foi efetuada nas bases do SciELO e PubMed, usando-se a palavra-chave "anemia" combinada com criança e Brasil. Após aplicação dos critérios de exclusão (artigos de revisão; anemia de etiologia não nutricional; diagnóstico não baseado no nível de hemoglobina (Hb<11g/dL); amostra envolvendo crianças >7 anos; ausência de dados de prevalência; e não identificação do local de estudo, da amostra, da faixa etária e/ou do método diagnóstico), foram selecionados 35 artigos, posteriormente categorizados segundo a origem de suas amostras: creches/escolas n=8, serviços de saúde n=12, populações em iniquidades n=6 e estudos de base populacional n=9. Por meio de metanálise, calcularam-se a prevalência média de anemia ponderada pelos respectivos tamanhos amostrais e a razão de chances para um intervalo de confiança de 95%, assumindo-se a prevalência de estudos de base populacional como referência n=1 (CRC=1), e obtiveram-se os seguintes resultados, respectivamente: creches/escolas: 52,0%, 1,61 (1,5-1,8); serviços de saúde: 60,2%, 2,26 (2,1-2,4); populações em iniquidades: 66,5%, 2,96 (2,6-3,4) e estudos de base populacional: 40,1%, com p<0,0001 para todas as comparações (χ2). A anemia continua representando um grave problema de saúde pública nos distintos cenários analisados, justificando receber atenção prioritária por parte dos gestores das políticas públicas das diferentes esferas de governo no País.

O b j e c t i v e : t o e s t i m a t e t h e p re v a l e n c e a n d e s t ablish risk factors associated with anemia in children in the Brazilian State of Alagoas. M e t h o d s : a c ro s s -s e c t i o n a l s t u d y w i t h a p ro b abilistic sample of 666 children aged between 6 and 60 m o n t h s . A n t h ro p o m e t r i c , e n v i ro n m e n t a l , d e m o - s e d i d e n t i f y c o r re l a t i o n s a n d t h e χ 2 t e s t t o a n a l y z e a s s o c i a t i o n s b e t w e e n t h e c a t e g o r y v a r i a b l e s . T h e a s s o c i a t i o n o f a n e m i a w i t h t h e p re d i c t o r v a r i a b l e s w a s c o n f i r m e d b y m u l t i p l e l o g i s t i c re g re s s i o n , w i t hstatistical significance set at p<0.05. Results: the prevalence of anemia was 45.0%. Hb l e v e l s w e re p o s i t i v e l y a n d s i g n i f i c a n t l y a s s o c i a t e d w i t h a g e ( r = 0 . 4 4 ; p < 0 . 0 1 ) . T h e h i g h e s t p re v a l e n c e w a s f o u n d i n t h e 6 -1 2 m o n t h a g e -g ro u p ( 7 5 . 2 % ) . M u l t i v a r i a t e a n a l y s i s i d e n t i f i e d t h e f o l l o w i n g v a r ia b l e s a s s o c i a t e d w i t h a n e m i a : a g e ≤ 3 6 m o n t h s ( p < 0 . 0 0 1 ) a n d a h o u s e h o l d w i t h f i v e o r m o re o c c upants (p=0.031). Conclusions: the degree of prevalence of anemia f o u n d i n d i c a t e s t h a t t h i s i s a s e r i o u s p u b l i c h e a l t h problem in the State of Alagoas. Larger families and t h o s e w i t h c h i l d re n a g e d u n d e r t h re e y e a r s s h o u l d receive greater attention. Key words Anemia, Epidemiology, Child, Risk factors, Cross-sectional studies Resumo O b j e t i v o : e s t i m a r a p re v a l ê n c i a e o s f a t o re s d e risco associados à anemia na população de pré-escolares do Estado de Alagoas, Brasil. Métodos: estudo transversal com amostra probab i l í s t i c a d e 6 6 6 c r i a n ç a s d e 6 a 6 0 m e s e s d e i d a d e . P o r m e i o d e i n q u é r i t o d o m i c i l i a r, re a l i z a d o d e novembro de 2005 a fevereiro de 2006, coletaram-se d a d o s a n t ro p o m é t r i c o s , a m b i e n t a i s , d e m o g r á f i c o s , socioeconômicos, de saúde, de utilização de serviços públicos e a presença de morbidades. A concentração d e h e m o g l o b i n a ( H b ) f o i m e n s u r a d a e m f o t ô m e t ro H e m o C u e ® , c o n s i d e r a n d o -s e c o m o a n e m i a o n í v e l <11 g/dL. Para identificar correlações usou-se o teste de Pearson. O teste χ 2 foi usado para analisar associa ç õ e s e n t re v a r i á v e i s c a t e g ó r i c a s . A a s s o c i a ç ã o d a anemia com as variáveis preditoras foi verificada por m e i o d e a n á l i s e d e re g re s s ã o l o g í s t i c a m ú l t i p l a . A d o t o u -s e p < 0 , 0 5 c o m o n í v e l c r í t i c o p a r a d e f i n i r significância estatística. R e s u l t a d o s : a p re v a l ê n c i a d e a n e m i a f o i d e 45,0%. O nível de Hb se correlacionou de forma posit i v a e s i g ...

The prevalence of anaemia reduced significantly in the evaluated period. Thus, it may no longer be a severe public health problem but can instead be considered a problem of moderate magnitude. It remains, however, above the level considered acceptable according to WHO criteria. These results justify the implementation of prevention and control actions.

Objective: To update the estimation of the prevalence of anaemia in Brazilian children according to four different epidemiological scenarios. Design: A new systematic review was conducted with a meta-analysis of the results published between 2007 and May 2019. Literature search was carried out in the PubMed and LILACS databases using keywords anaemia, child and Brazil. A total of thirty-seven articles (17 741 children) were selected and categorised according to the origin of their respective samples: childcare centres (Childcare; n 13 studies/2697 individuals), health services (Services; n 4/755), populations with social inequities (Inequities, n 7/6798) and population-based studies (Populations; n 13/7491). Assuming a prevalence of 20·9 % as reference (Health National Survey; n 3455), the combined prevalence ratios (PR) were calculated. A random-effects model was used. Participants: Brazilian children 6–60 months of age. Results: The prevalence of anaemia, by scenario, was: Childcare 24·8 % (PR 1·06; 95 % CI 0·81, 1·40); Services 39·9 % (PR 1·76, 95 % CI 1·33, 2·35); Inequities 51·6 % (PR 2·02, 95 % CI 1·87, 2·18); and Populations 35·8 % (PR 1·42, 95 % CI 1·23, 1·64). Therefore, the values were all higher than the national prevalence; the Inequities had the highest prevalence, and only Childcare did not reach statistical significance. Concerning the previous meta-analysis, there was a reduction in anaemia prevalence in all scenarios: –52·3, –33·7, –22·4 and –10·7 %, respectively. Conclusions: Compared to the situation revealed in the previous meta-analysis, anaemia, although observed to a lesser extent, remains an important public health problem in the different scenarios analysed, especially for children living in Inequities. Access to Childcare mitigates the risk for this condition.