Correlação entre a merenda escolar, obesidade e cariogenicidade em escolares Correlation between school meals, obesity and cariogenicity in school

Objectives: analyzed the influence of school snacks on the prevalence of dental caries and obesity. Methods: a total of 480 students attending public schools at the city of Juiz de Fora/MG were analyzed by oral clinical examination, anthropometric evaluation (BMI – body mass index), and application of a dietary questionnaire. The software EPI-INFO (version 3.3.2) was used for entry and quali-quantitative analysis of data. Results: the mean age of the study population was 10.3 years, ranging from 4.0 to 18.0 years, being 50.4% females. Nearly 16.6% of the population was classified as having obesity and overweight. The mean dmft was 1.33 and the mean DMFT was 3.18. There were no statistically significant differences (p = 0.92) in the mean DMFT according to the BMI and in the dmft according to the BMI, according to the parametric ANOVA test. Conclusions: the quality of school snacks did not influence the obesity and the prevalence of dental caries.