Food and nutritional education with students, parents, and employees in a public school of the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo

Introduction and objective: The school environment helps the transformation of knowledge obtained in behavioral changes, because students, parents, employees, and teachers get involved in a dynamic way in the process of changes. This study aimed to trace the profile of students, parents and employees in a public school of the metropolitan region of Sao Paulo, in relation to sociodemographic and anthropometric characteristics from the food consumption and habits of life as well raise awareness them of the adoption of a healthy eating. Materials and methods: It were an intervention study held with 23 parents, 27 employees and 258 students. The nutritional status of parents and employees was reviewed by the Body Mass Index (BMI), correlating it in socioeconomic rank, education, and the food consumption. The nutritional status of the students was determined by indexes: Height for the Age, Weight for the Age, and Body Mass Index for the Age at Z-score according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Results: The parents showed lesser average ages than the employees, 75% of the parents and 85% of the employees were overweight. The parents got lower education than the employees. The employees belonged to high socioeconomic rank (A + B) while the parents belonged to lower socioeconomic rank (C + D-E). 30% of the students were overweight. Discussion and conclusion: It were concluded that the studied group was overweight. The employees are older with higher education and socioeconomic status than the parents. 70% of them need to improve the food consumption and other lifestyle habits.