Nutritional status of adult patients attending health centers in San Juan

MUÑOZ, G; ARANDA G; GONZÁLEZ C; GUZZO V; MARTINEZ AM; RODENAS A; SANTIAGO G; URIZAR E; COIRINI, H.

Buenos Aires

Congreso; The 2nd International Congress on Abdominal Obesity, Bridging the gap between cardiology and diabetology; 2011

KENES International

In the present work, we describe a diagnosis of food and nutrition situation of the adult population attending health centers (CAPS) belonging to the Greater San Juan location. An observational, prospective and transversal study was performed, including diagnostic scanning taking simple samples randomly. The instruments and techniques used to collect survey data were obtained through personal interviews. In total 1,307 surveys were conducted. The purpose of the study was to determine strategies for food and nutrition education to suggest the implementation of policies designed to decrease the development of diseases associated with nutritional disorders, as well as increased longevity and quality of life of the population. The analysis of the information recorded in surveys allows us to infer the existence of discrepancies compared to other previous studies and the National Survey of Risk Factors (NSRF). This may be due mainly to two factors: The women attend more frequently than men to the CAPS and the study group is a low-income population. With regard to risk factors data shows 72% of overweight in our study when the values recorded by the national survey of 2005 indicates 50.9% of overweight for the province of San Juan. Regarding the waist circumference 53% of the population encounters severe risk and 19% a moderate risk of cardio-metabolic diseases. An interesting result is that only 23% of the respondents acknowledged having a chronic illness and the remaining 77% do not consider overweight as illness, which states that the population does not recognize obesity as a disease. Seventy percent of the population is sedentary, and do not exercise on a regular basis. In the present study we also found that only 29% of the respondents smoke tobacco which is lower than the described in 2005 for this province (34.9%). In conclusion this study shows some discrepancies with the National Survey probably due to the kind of impact of the awareness campaigns however it allow us to develop an appropriate database to coordinate among ministries and other public health sections.