hypoxia as well as to socioeconomic, nutritional and environmental factors. Objectives: To compare physical growth of school children in Peruvian urban areas at sea level (150 meters above sea level) and moderate altitude (2 320 m.a.s.l.). Design: Ex post facto design, descriptive comparative study. Institution: Faculty of Physical Education, State University of Campinas, SP, Brazil, and Universidad Nacional de Educacion, Lima, Peru. Participants: School children. Interventions: A total of 1 153 boys and girls aged 6 to 11 years were selected from two Peruvian geographical regions, one at sea level (SL) (Lima-East; 150 m.a.s.l.) and the other at moderate altitude (MA) (urban Southern Arequipa; 2 320 m.a.s.l.). School children at SL were chosen in non-probabilistic intentional way, totaling a subsample of 672 children. Pupils at moderate altitude (MA) were selected by stratified probabili...

Background: So far there is no questionnaire to assess the level of physical activity related to children and adolescents’ health in Peru, as well as information on measures of reproducibility. Objectives: To propose and validate a physical activity questionnaire for school adolescents living at moderate altitude. Design: Descriptive simple study. Setting: Faculty of Physical Education, UNICAMP, Brazil. Participants: School children 10 to 18 year-old. Interventions: The sample consisted of 116 students selected from a stratified probability, 58 men and 59 women, constituting 20% of National College of Immaculate Conception’s population, school located at District Jose Luis Bustamante y Rivero Arequipa (Peru). The questionnaire had 11 questions that assessed the level of physical activity using four indicators including such as activity type, frequency, duration and intensity. To dete...

Introduction: In order to determine the degree of biological maturation in rodents it is necessary to apply non-invasive and invasive methods, for which studies covering different strains of rats need simple procedures to control the confounding effects of biological maturation they may cause. Objectives: To determine from body mass growth velocity of Wistar male rats and to propose linear regression equations to predict growth velocity peak (GVP). Design: Longitudinal cohort study. Institution: State University of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil, Department of Pharmacology. Methods: From 101 rats 25 male Wistar rats 21 days old were selected in probabilistic-random (randomized tables). Body mass (g) was assessed every week until 16 weeks of life. For statistical analysis, descriptive statistics were used in arithmetic average (X) and standard deviation (SD). To determine significant differ...

Objectives: To determine physical growth parameters and to assess nutritional status of school adolescents. Design: Descriptive comparative study. Institution: Liceo Naval Admiral Lizardo Montero, Lima, Peru. Participants: Adolescents aged 12-15 years. Interventions: A non-probability selection of 501 school children of both sexes (251 men and 250 women) was done. Variables determined included weight and height. Mean, standard deviation, percentages, t-test for independent samples and paired (p <0.05) and chi-square (p<0.05) analysis were done. Main outcome measures: Variables of growth and nutritional status. Results: Compared to international references, there were no significant differences (p <0.05) in weight and height by sex in adolescents. The nutritional status showed higher proportion of well nourished subjects (74.5% in men and 75.6% in women) compared with low birth w...