ANTROPOMETRIC INDICATORS, NUTRITIONALSTATUS AND CARDIOMETABOLIC RISK IN SCHOOLCHILDREN WHIT MAPUCHE AND NON. MAPUCHE ETHNIC GROUPS, CHILE

Objectives: To identify, through the association of anthropometric, status nutritional and physical variables, the cardiometabolic risk in Mapuche and non-Mapuche schoolchildren in the Araucanía Region. Material and methods: It is a descriptive, cross-sectional study, using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov, Mann-Whitney U and Kruskal-Wallis H statistical tests. The data were analyzed with the SPSS program, version 22.0 (p < 0.05). The participants were 250 schoolchildren: 185 Mapuche and 65 non-Mapuche. Anthropometric tests of weight and height for age, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist-height ratio (WSR), and the Course Navette aerobic capacity test (VO2max), Ruffier index were evaluated and resting heart rate (RHR). Results: Mapuche and non-Mapuche schoolchildren presented similar sizes; Their weight and waist circumference differed according to their body mass index classifications, however there were no statistically significant differences between the ethnic groups. Conclusions: The size variable does not determine the presence or absence of cardiometabolic risk in schoolchildren with Mapuche and non-Mapuche ethnic ancestry through the WSR indicator. However, the study demonstrated that the weight and WC variables directly influence the presence of cardiometabolic risk in the schoolchildren of the sample diagnosed with overweight and obesity. Keywords: Anthropometry, Schoolchildren, Ethnic group, Cardiometabolic risk.