"Evaluation of Obesity and Overweight in Children Aymaras of the Province of Arica, Chile"

Abstract

In recent years there has been an increase in childhood obesity worldwide. Chile has not been oblivious to this problem, considered among the countries with higher incidence. Arica, an extreme region of Chile, borders Bolivia and Peru, has a great ethnic diversity predominating Aymara. The inhabitants of Arica have experienced adaptations to urban lifestyles, carrying out modifications corporal. For this motive is necessary to evaluate the body composition and the somatotype in Aymara children of the Arica commune. A non-experimental, descriptive, cross-sectional study was carried out under a quantitative exploratory analysis of variables evaluating 170 Aymara children between 8 and 10 years of age. The main results classify children as overweight, showing a mesoendomorphic somatotype and endo-mesomorphic girls, with a greater tendency to obesity in girls than in boys. Address for correspondence: Luis A Barrio Mateu Dirección: Ofragia 65, Residencial Las Palmas 2, Arica, Chile, CP: 1000000 Telephone: +56985536027 E-mail: lbm170161@gmail.com INTRODUCTION It has been proven in recent years that the increase of obesity in children runs parallel to the behavior in adulthood. There seems to be an inexorable tendency to increase weight in the child population, to the point that there is a talk of a real epidemic. Obesity today has become manifest at the international level, and this scourge has likewise affected Chile. According to the results of Sistema de System of Measurement of the Quality of Education (SIMCE) of Physical Education, made to children of educational establishments in 2016, they announced that there is an increase in obesity and a cardiovascular and metabolic risk (Physical Education SIMCE 2016; World Health Organization 2014). There are many factors influencing obesity, including the impact of globalization, family and social lifestyles, lack of information regarding sound approaches to nutrition, the limited availability, and affordability of healthy foods, which contribute to aggravate the problem (De Ruiter et al. 2017). The region of Arica and Parinacota, an extreme area in Chile, has a population of different ethnic origins and diverse nationalities, being Aymara a large population, inhabiting, not only in the rural and peripheral localities, but, in the commune of Arica. These populations have been acquiring urban lifestyles, not knowing how these styles have influenced their anthropometric characteristics. Therefore, it would be interesting to carry out cineanthropometrical evaluations in these populations to determine the obesity index in the population of the Arica commune, considering the cultural diversity of the region. This has inspired the researchers to develop the present research, for which the following objectives have been outlined.