Estado nutricional de crianças indígenas em um município da Amazônia Ocidental: série histórica (2008 a 2024) utilizando o Sistema de Vigilância Alimentar e Nutricional (SISVAN)

Abstract

Child nutritional status is a sensitive marker of a population's health and development conditions. Indigenous children, in particular, face a double burden of malnutrition, with the persistence of historical undernutrition and the emergence of overweight. The Food and Nutrition Surveillance System (SISVAN) is the central tool for monitoring this situation in Brazil. This study aims to analyze the temporal trend of the nutritional status of indigenous children aged 5 to 10 years in the municipality of Borba, Amazonas, from 2008 to 2024, comparing it with the trends in the state of Amazonas, the Northern Region, and Brazil. An ecological time-series study was conducted using secondary data obtained from SISVAN. The annual prevalences of undernutrition indicators (stunting, underweight, and thinness) and overweight indicators (overweight and obesity) were analyzed. The temporal trend was analyzed using Prais-Winsten regression, calculating the Annual Percent Change (APC). While Brazil, the Northern Region, and the state of Amazonas showed significantly decreasing trends for the main indicators of chronic and acute undernutrition, the municipality of Borba maintained all its indicators as stationary throughout the period. Similarly, overweight indicators remained stationary in Borba, diverging from decreasing trends observed at other aggregation levels for overweight and severe obesity. The results reveal profound health inequity, in which indigenous children in Borba did not benefit from the progress observed at other geographical scales. The dual stagnation of both undernutrition and overweight reflects the synergy of critical social determinants, such as geographic isolation, severe food insecurity, extreme poverty, and poor sanitation. This highlights the urgent need for intersectoral and culturally sensitive public policies for this population.