Seguridad alimentaria y estado nutricional en niños y adolescentes indígenas de Chibuleo

Abstract

Food security is affected by economic constraints and a lack of resources, in order to be able to access necessary food and thus maintain an adequate and balanced diet for an optimal nutritional status. The objective was to study the food security and nutritional status of indigenous children and adolescents in each of the seven hamlets of the community of Chibuleo: San Francisco, San Luis, San Alfonso, San Pedro, Chacapungo, San Miguel and Pataló Alto in order to identify food and nutritional risks; an observational, descriptive and cross-sectional research. The sample consisted of 208 households and 249 children and adolescents between 5 and 17 years of age. To identify socio-demographic characteristics, data were collected on gender, the hamlet in which the household resides, basic services, heads of household, and basic remuneration received. To analyse the level of food security of the households, the Latin American and Caribbean Food Security Scale (ELCSA) was used, consisting of 15 questions, which was applied to the heads of household, as for the nutritional status of the children and adolescents, anthropometric data were collected, such as weight and height, using the indicators weight/age, height/age, and BMI/age. The results showed that 50% of the population was slightly food insecure, 41.3% was moderately food insecure and 3.8% was severely food insecure, as a result of the lack of economic resources, which prevents a safe diet, and only 4.8% of the population was food secure. In terms of nutritional status, 55.8% of the children and adolescents were underweight for their age (chronic malnutrition), while 70.3% were of normal weight for their age, although low percentages of overweight, obesity and underweight were identified.