Revista de Medicina Desportiva (English) July 2018 - Page 8

Accord-
ing to the
authors,
the COSI
Portugal is a
childhood
nutrition
surveillance
system,
integrated in
the study Childhood Obesity Sur-
veillance Initiative of the World
Health Organization for Europe
(COSI/WHO Europe), and its
main Objective is to create a
systematic network for the col-
lection, analysis, interpretation
and dissemination of descriptive
information on the characteristics of
the child’s nutritional status of the
school-age children of the primary
school, from 6 to 8 years. They refer
that “the first round of data collec-
tion took place in the school year of
2007/2008, 13 countries participated
in the second round (2009/2010),
and in the third round (2012/2013)
19 countries of Europe. In the fourth
round (2015/2016) of the COSI/
WHO Europe, 35 European countries
participated in the study, out of the
40 already registered”. In Portugal,
this program is coordinated by the
National Institute of Health Doctor
Ricardo Jorge, in cooperation with
other medical Portuguese institu-
tions, the Direção-Geral de Saúde
and Regional Health Administra-
tions.
In this study there is a great
concern about the juvenile obesity,
which is the most prevalent pae-
diatric disease in the world and an
important risk factor for many dis-
eases, with social implications, like
“discrimination, social isolation and
low self-esteem, which will imme-
diately affect health, education and
quality of life”. But the problem is
even greater, since in the introduc-
tion it is written that “more than
60% of obese children will be obese
adults”. Uppsss!...
In this study, which is based “in
the model of descriptive epidemi-
ology, with repeated cross-cutting
samples of evaluation of the nutri-
tional status of children from pri-
mary schools in Portugal”, the evalu-
ation included “6745 children with 6
(27.1%), 7 (49.4%) and 8 (23.6%) years
of age, from 230 schools”.
6 july 2018 www.revdesportiva.pt
Based on the WHO criteria, COSI
Portugal 2016 presented the follow-
ing prevalences:
• 0.9% of children had low weight
• 30.7% excess weight
• 11.7% obesity.
The higher prevalences of excess
weight and of obesity were found in
rural areas, and the higher preva-
lence for low-weight was identified
in the suburban regions. Between
the evaluations of 2008 and 2016
it was found the decrease on the
prevalence of excess weight (from
37.9% to 30.7%, less 7.2%), and with
the obesity as well (from 15.3% to
11.7%, less 3.6%).
As far as far Child Food is con-
cerned, some findings are indicated:
• 96.5% of children had breakfast
daily
• There was a daily consumption of
· N
 onfat or half-fat milk (72.9% vs.
4.2% fat milk)
· Meat and fish (17.3 and 9.8%)
· Fruit (63.3%)
· Vegetable soup (56,6%)
· legumes (37,7%).
• Consumption, at least 1 to 3
times/week, was
· 7
 5,1% for the sweet biscuits/bis-
cuits, cakes and donuts
· 8
 6,8% for candy, gums or choco-
lates
· 65,3% for sugary soft drinks
· 8
 8.7% for pizzas, french fries,
hamburgers, sausages
· 8
 3.3% for package chips, puffs,
popcorn.
Physical activity / exercise
Physical activity represents all
the movement that is carried out
throughout the day and it includes
walking, climbing stairs, washing
the car or gardening. Walking to the
by foot, for example, can be a daily
portion of physical activity. However,
this study revealed that to go to
school
• 76.6% of children went by car,
• 17.5% was walking or biking bike,
• 5.9% went by both foot/bicycle
and motor vehicles.
The results make some sense,
since 64.1% of parents considered
the way to school as insecure.
Sports clubs are still a very
important place for this health
promotion component, where 52.5%
the children attended them and, of
these, 60.3% attended were there for
one to three hours / week. But they
also played outside home, from one
hour / day (35.3%) to two hours / day
(34,3%) during the week days, but at
the weekend 66.3% of children play
three or more hours a day outside
home.
Almost all schools (98.6%) pro-
vided physical education classes,
as well as most (1 st year – 65.1%; 2 nd
year – 64.3%) provides 90 or more
minutes per week.
Hours of sleep and time on the
computer
Most children (71.5%) reported
sleeping more than nine hours a day.
More than half of the children
(59.1%) were on the computer about
of one hour a day, whereas during
the weekend the use of the com-
puter to play electronic games rose
to two or more hours.
Food supply in schools
Fruit juices and other sugary bever-
ages could be found at 16.1% of the
schools. The most available foods
found was: water (85%), plain milk
and/or yogurt (74.1%), fresh fruit
(66.5%) and vegetables (41.5%).
To conclude
This study was carried out in
schools on children aged between 6
and 8 years old and it represents an
excellent portrait of the Portuguese
reality in this age group. It can be
seen that there is still a lot of food
correction to make, the children
maintain fairly reasonable levels
of activity / physical exercise, they
sleep an adequate number of hours
and already spent many hours of
their life in front of a computer. It
is demonstrated that sports clubs
are excellent agents for promoting
physical exercise, but the schools do
not adequately meet their nutri-
tional educational function, because
they do not provide adequate
vegetables and fruits and there are
still many soft drinks available.
However, we are improving, since
between 2008 and 2018 it was found
a decrease on the prevalence of
overweight and obesity, but there is
still a lot of work to be done for the
implementation and sedimentation
of good health habits. Full text in
www.revdesportiva.pt Basil Ribeiro