Nutritional status of an economically-privileged convenience sample of urban children in Guatemala City.

Background: The worldwide pandemic of overweight and obesity has now reached low-income tropical societies.

Objective: To determine whether overweight or obesity is present among children from middle-class Guatemala City homes.

Methods: A total of 363 children, 173 boys and 190 girls aged 72-131 months, were included for height, weight, and abdominal circumference at its narrowest point (natural waist).

Results: Overall, 58.6% of subjects presented a body mass index within the normal Center for Disease Control and Prevention curve limits, whereas 3.9% fell below this range (low weight), 17.4% were in the risk of overweight range, and 20.1% were classified as overweight. The mean natural waist circumference was 62.6+/-0.9 cm. The waist-circumference-to-height ratio had a median of 0.47, with 36.9% of all children having a waist-circumference-to-height ratio exceeding the proposed 0.5 upper limit.

Conclusions: Nutrition transition has reached the juvenile population of this Central American republic, at least in its urban, privileged groups.