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Nutrire 23 - 03

Estado nutricional de escolares e seu acesso a programas sociais em dez municípios brasileiros*
Nutritional status of school children and their access to social programs in 10 Brazilian counties

Nesta Edição

Abstract

Silva. Mv.; Sturion, G.L.; Omeyio, A.M.H.; Pipitone, M.A.P; Furtuoso, M.C.O. Nutritional status of school children and their access to social programs in 10 brazilian counties. Nutrire: rev. Soc. Bras. Alim. Nutr.= J. Brazilian Soc. Food Nutr. São Paulo, SP, v. 23. p. 33-53. jun., 2002.

As the national school meal program (SMP) was decentralized, knowledge qf the nutritional status and feeding preferences of the target population became possible. Such information may contribute significantly to the reorientation of the objectives of the program, addressing among other goals, the more efficient use of the public funds. This paper describes the nutritional status of students (n=1339) from public schools and analyses the information about their and their family's access to supplementary programs. This information was obtained in 10 Brazilian counties in 5 of the country's regions. To identify the proportion of students with an indicator of height deficit, we have adopted the critical level of HAZ (height - to - age) < -2. Socioeconomic information regarding the access to the programs was obtained from parents. One of the main results of this study was the higher concentration of chronic malnutrition found in the poorer municipality schools. The frequency of school meal consumption was higher among younger students, as expected, and the access of students to the remaining programs (minimum-wage, school­voucher; food stamps) could be considered significant. Although the total volume of government resources currently allocated to social spending can be considered high, the reason why this does not effectively erradicate or at least evidently reduce poverty in the country may be attributed to the traditional misallocation of expenses.

Keywords: nutritional status; program access; public policies; feeding programs

Marina Vieira da Silva;
Gilma Lucazechi Sturion;
Ana Maria Holland Ometto;
Maria Angélica Penatti Pipitone;
Maria Cristina Ortiz Furtuoso

(*) Integra a Pesquisa Avaliação do Programa de Alimentação Escolar".

Endereço para correspondência:

ESALQ/USP.
C.Postal 9.13418-900- Piracicaba, São Paulo.
E-mail: mvdsilva@esalq.usp.br.

Agredecimento:
à FINEP/BID. Processo no. 64960536-00.