| Sumario: | Objective. To estimate the prevalence of overweight and obesity among preschoolers from Mérida and get to know the main social and biological determinants of overweight in this population. Design and Methodology. A cross-sectional study, which examined 425 preschoolers to investigate the associations between social (Geographical location of the school, civil status of the caregiver, age of caregiver, caregiver education, expenditure on weekly caregiver feeding, family type, and obesity of the caregiver) and biological determinants (Sex, birth weight, breastfeeding and BMI) for overweight and obesity, was carried out . Simple and adjusted odds ratios with Mantel-Haenszel as measures of association were used. Outcomes. 46% of preschoolers are overweight (? 85-95 percentile) and obesity (?95th percentile). In the daily environment, children cared by obese caregivers, are 1.5 times more likely to be overweight or obese. There is also the possibility of 1.7 times to get this condition if the birth weight of the preschooler was greater than 3.5 kg, this is after controlling the confounding variable. Conclusion. There are social and biological determinants that are not modifiable, but when concerning the obesity of the caregiver, it can be modified to influence the nutritional status of the preschooler who is in the acquisition stage of nutritional habits. Key words: overweight, obesity, preschoolers, Social and Biological Determinants
|