Day care centres as an institution for health promotion among needy children: an analytical study in São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the role of day care centres in the nutritional state of children belonging to a low-income population, comparing the nutritional state of the children in the day care centres with children in the same population who were given other types of day care.Design: Analytical cross-sectional study.Setting: Public day care centres/primary health care.Participants: Children aged 0-6 yr attending in 4 public day care centres (n = 446), and sample of population obtained during vaccination campaign (n = 1626).Measurement: Nutritional evaluation was conducted through weight and height measurements, using as a standard the NCHS (USA) table and Gomez and Waterlow methodology. the type of daily care received by the children was assessed through a questionnaire answered by the responsible persons during the vaccination campaign.Results: the nutritional status of children attended in the day care centers was better than children of the same community receiving other types of daily care (OR = 0.48; CI 95% = 0.36-0.65; P < 0.0001), the improvement was related to more than 1 year of enrollment in the day care (OR = 0.74; CI 95% = 0.57-0.96; P = 0.02).