OBJECTIVES: to describe the factors associated to the children's nutritional state assisted in day-care centers of the City hall of São Paulo Municipal district. METHODS: a probabilistic sample of 556 children between 4 and 84 months old was selected. The National Center of Health Statistics growth curve was used as the reference for the weight/age, weight/height and height/age indices. Children with indices two z scores below the median value of the reference population were considered undernourished and the ones presenting weight/height indices two z scores above, overweight. Two Models of Multivariate Logistic Regression were built: one to identify stunting associated variables and the other for overweight associated variables. RESULTS: 5.2% stunting and 5.0% overweight prevalence were determined. The variables of child's age group and the number of siblings were inversely associated to the two diseases in studies, in which to have two or more siblings and to be less than two years were risk factors for stunting, and to have two or more siblings and to be less than five years were protection factors for overweight. CONCLUSIONS: the prevalence of the stunting and the overweight above the expected for the reference population justifies nutritional interventions.
Nutritional status; Child; Malnutrition; Overweight; Child day care centers
