[Factors associated with nutritional status of children under five years old from Paraíba, Brazil]

This paper aimed to analyze whether the nutritional status of children under 5 years of age is related to the biological conditions of their mothers, access to health services, the benefit of social programs, and socioeconomic conditions. This is a cross-sectional study carried out in the context of the Family Health Strategy in seven municipalities in inland Paraíba State. The methodology included the diagnosis of stunting and excess weight (overweight and obesity) in children, which determinants were analyzed through the Decision Tree. As a result, 469 children were evaluated, of which 7.9% had stunting and 12.8% had excess weight. An association of these outcomes was found with maternal nutritional status. Also, the relevant exposures of stunting were the age of the child of less than 2 years (p = 0.018) and the moderate/severe food and nutritional insecurity (p = 0.008). For excess weight, not being a beneficiary of the Programa Bolsa Família (p = 0.049) and the worst socioeconomic situation (p = 0.006) were also factors associated with the outcome. As a conclusion of the present study, we can affirm that there is an association between the maternal and child nutritional status.