Hábitos alimenticios y su relación con el estado nutricional de niños/as de la escuela Fiscal Mixta Dra. Graciela Atarihuana, de la ciudad de Loja

Eating habits are recurring manifestations associated with cultural or family beliefs and traditions that directly influence in the growth, development and consequent appearance of different pathologies which can affect the health of a person, especially in the growth stage; In the present reach project, it was proposed to determine the eating habits and their relationship with the nutritional status in boys and girls children of the “Doctor. Graciela Atarihuana” Mixed Public School, of Loja city, it was a descriptive correlational and cross-sectional study. To obtain information related to eating habits, the Krece Plus Rapid Test was applied to parents or legal representatives of 249 boys and girls from 3 to 12 years old. To assess the nutritional status, the BMI was used prior to the control of weight and height of the students, obtaining as results that the population has good eating habits in 76.7%, in terms of nutritional status, 65.9% are within the normal range, in relation to sex it was obtained that girls with a normal nutritional status represent 34.1% of the population, a similar result in boys with 31.7%; 10.8% of the male sex are obese; in relation to age, 31.4% of children from 3 to 6 years old have a normal nutritional state. Finally, it is determined that the relationship between eating habits and nutritional status, by means of Chi2 calculation, has not shown a significant statistical relationship between both variables, in this boys and girls´group. Key words: eating habits, nutritional status, schoolchildren, body mass index.