Introduction

Obesity in children represents a public health problem worldwide. Chile has one of the highest prevalence rates of childhood obesity in Latin America. Locally, there are few studies that show the differences between public and private schools in relation to parameters like weight, height and waist circumference in children that attend these schools. The objective of this study is to determine if there are anthropometric differences in children of age 5 and 6 according to the schools stakeholder.

Material and Methods

A quantitative, descriptive and transversal research was carried out. The study has a non-probabilistic sample of 195 children between 5 and 6 years old, which 55 of them attend a public school and 140 a private one.

Results

In the anthropometric measurement of children between 5 and 6 years old of public and private schools, the students’ weight and height were not statistically significant (p>0.05) comparing both schools, however, the population as a whole, without differentiating their age, they were statistically significant in height (p<0.05). The BMI values for 5 and 6 years old are below the internationally defined obesity cut-off points and were statistically significant between public and private schools (p<0.05). Regarding the perimeter of waist, the children that attend public schools had more children on percentile 90, which is considered as abdominal obesity. However, these differences that were found were not statistically significant (p>0.05).

Conclusions

There was less height (p<0.05), greater weight and greater waist circumference in public school students in relation to private, however, given the low participation of schools and difference in sample size in both groups, these differences must be carefully interpreted and analysed.

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