Obesidad y sobrepeso infantil

Estudio cualitativo en las familiar pobres de Pañalolén, Chile

Abstract

The following paper shows malnutrition in children belonging to low-income families. The concern which started the research is connected with the shocking increase in overweight and obesity in the population in general, and in low-income families in particular. This study was conducted over a group of families whose income level, educational background and family composition is similar; however, their children’s nutritional features are different. We had this hypothesis: families without obesity and overweight in children have a healthier life style than do families with problems of excessive nutrition. Eating habits were analyzed through distinctive eating characteristics in every family and through the external shared context, being eating habits the field where malnutrition due to excessive intake is defined. Focusing on the analysis made on eating habits, both protecting factors and risky factors could be identified in each kind of family, which foster or protect children’s malnutrition, while recovering from families’ own life styles the clues for such success and solving those risky factors which have a shared responsibility