Objective:

To evaluate the relationship the nutritional status of the youngest child under 48 months of age (in families with the biological mother present) and their mothers among 3906 children selected from a sample of a national survey in 1989 (PNSN).

Results:

Malnutrition was present in 5.8 per cent of the children. From these, 21.8 per cent, 60.9 per cent and 17.3 per cent had overweight/obese, eutrophic and malnourished mothers, respectively. Stratified analyses taking into account the regions, situation, incomme distribution and mother's educational level demonstrated that a lower proportion of malnourished children was concurrent with a higher proportion of overweight/obese mothers. The Kappa test evidenced a poor agreement between the nutritional conditions of the child-mother pairs (K<=0.048).

Conclusions:

When the proportion of malnourished children decreased within the analyzed groups, the proportion of overweight/obese mothers increased. Such an epidemiological pattern indicates that within groups in which malnutrition is less prevalent, the proportion of children for whom a lack of food in the household is the main determinant factor for malnutrition is lower.