O corpo cúmplice da vida: considerações a partir dos depoimentos de mulheres obesas de uma favela carioca

Excess weight among women in a low-income urban community: socioeconomic, demographic and reproductive factors

The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of excess weight and associated factors in women of reproductive age living in a low-income community. A cross-sectional study was conducted with a sample of 663 women 15 to 49 years of age residing in the neighborhood of Coelhos in the city of Recife, Brazil. Body mass index (BMI)-for-age was used to classify the nutritional status of the adolescents (15 to 19 years of age), adopting Z-score of ≥+1 for the definition of overweight. For the adults, BMI≥25.0 kg/m² was considered indicative of overweight. Socioeconomic, demographic and reproductive variables were analyzed as possible factors associated with overweight. The prevalence of excess weight was found in two thirds of the sample. The results of the Poisson multiple regression analysis showed a significantly higher prevalence of excess weight with the advance in age, among those with a younger menarche age, those who had three or more pregnancies, those living with their partner and those self-declared black or white. Multiparity was the only factor associated with excess weight that could be modified, which underscores the importance of prenatal and family planning services to its prevention and control.

[Resistance training and daily work routine: meanings attributed to body pain in the case of a fitness center in Rio de Janeiro]

This article is part of an ethnographic research survey conducted over the course of a year in the resistance training sector of a fitness center located in a suburb of the city of Rio de Janeiro, the athletes of which have a low income status, and the majority of whom have professional occupations or jobs that involve a high threshold of physical effort. From the anthropological standpoint of symbolic interactionism, the main objective was to analyze how the "limits" of pain of the body related in a symbolic way to the resistance training in the fitness center and the physical efforts demanded in their professional occupations or jobs. The analysis of the observations indicated that these students perceived the body in an instrumental and utilitarian way when relating the pain of physical exercise to their daily work routines. Thus, the relationship between work and physical activities in the representations of the body "limits" of these subjects expressed through pain is implicit. These data are relevant to think about health interventions and practices in the field of Public Health.